Violist Julian Seney is a dedicated chamber musician and educator from Monrovia, California, characterized as playing with “high levels of expressiveness.” (ABCSeville). He has performed around the world in venues such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall, Beijing Concert Hall, the KKL Luzern, and the Seoul Arts Center. He has worked with conductors Susanna Mälkki, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gustavo Dudamel, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, among others. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Kim Kashkashian, Peter Bruns, Stephen Drury and has performed as a part of Music for Food, the Symphony in C Virtuosi Series, and Concerts for Compassion.

He is an alumni of prestigious festivals including Perlman Music Program, the Yellow Barn Young Artist Program, the Lucerne Festival Academy and has participated in residencies through PMP Suncoast, the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival and the Essex Winter Series as well as having been a fellow at the Bowdoin International Music Festival. He has served as Principal violist for USA’s National Youth Orchestra, the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, New England Conservatory’s Philharmonia and the Yale Philharmonia.

Julian is passionate about new music, and has commissioned numerous solo and chamber pieces for the viola. He has worked with composers including George Benjamin, Shulamit Ran, Betsy Jolas, Hannah Kendall, Joan Tower, Enno Poppe, and Zhou Long, as well as composer-improvisers such as Anthony Coleman, Joe Morris, and Steve Vai. He founded Trio Animoso (flute-viola-harp), which regularly collaborates with living composers, commissioning new works for the ensemble and finding rarely-heard pieces to share with their audiences.

As an educator, Julian has coached chamber music at the New England Conservatory’s preparatory school, the Rivers Conservatory, and the Cooperative Arts and Humanities Highschool in New Haven. He has taught private lessons and coached orchestral ensembles at the New England Conservatory, Yale’s Music In Schools Initiative (MISI), the Advent School, the Youth Orchestra of LA (YOLA) and maintains a private studio. He completed his Bachelor’s degree at the New England Conservatory, and both a Master of Music and a Master of Musical Arts at the Yale School of Music where he received a full tuition award and fellowship. In his free time, he loves to hike, bike, cook, and hang out with his two dogs, Bear and Isa.