Julian Stuart -Burns/ Music

A Cuban-American Dutch composer & pianist, Julian Stuart -Burns writes music torn between method and spontaneity. His works focus on musical ekphrasis, sharp and unexpected contrast, and on drawing connections with literature and current events. His writing is informed by his experience in organized labor and by Cuban revolutionary history. He is inspired deeply by sounds, images, and writings related on the one hand to crystals, shimmers of light, and comic relief, and on the other to desolation, tragic prophesy, and apocalypse. Julian’s music has been featured at ilSUONO Contemporary Music Week, NYCEMF, ICEBERG New Music Institute, VIPA, soundSCAPE, and Longy Divergent Studio. He has been awarded the 2025 Bernard Rogers Memorial Prize for his solo piano sonata Toward the Surface. His sinfonietta piece In a Few won a Belle S. Gitelman Award in 2024. His work has been performed by Contemporaneous, CAMP, Ensemble Suono Giallo , Mivos Quartet, musicians from Talea Ensemble, and loadbang. His music has been presented at the Sheen Center in New York City , BRIC Art Media, the Paul Hindemith Center in Blonay, Switzerland, the Societat Ateneu Musical del Port in Valencia, Spain, and Field Recital Hall in Chicago.  Julian has taught composition and music theory at Eastman School of Music and Eastman Community Music School. He has also given lectures on orchestration to undergraduate and graduate composition students at Eastman. Julian has been an active participant in the world of classical and contemporary music even outside of his capacity as a composer. He has worked with the Rochester-based contemporary music ensemble fivebyfive as their social media chair and production intern. He has also worked at WXXI Classical 91.5 as a guest on -air host and archives intern under Music Director Mona Seghatoleslami. Additionally, Julian worked at the New York Philharmonic as an assistant in the Archives and Exhibitions department, curating exhibits for the Gary Parr and Bruno Walter galleries in David Geffen Hall. 

Julian received a master’s degree in composition at the Eastman School of Music, having studied with Robert Morris, Carlos Sanchez-Guttierez, and Ricardo Zohn -Muldoon. Julian completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Chicago, where he studied with Anthony Cheung, Dongryul Lee, and Augusta Read Thomas. He received a B.A. from the University of Chicago in Fundamentals: Issues and Texts, a course of study which focuses on philosophy, poetry, and film. Having completed his M.A. in composition from Eastman, Julian is currently a labor organizer at 1199SEIU, the United States’ largest healthcare union.