Artist Biography

Julian Yu

Julian Yu was born in Beijing in 1957 and studied at the Tokyo College of Music under Joji Yuasa. He migrated to Australia in 1985. In 1988 he was selected for a Composition Fellowship at Tanglewood, where he studied with Hans Werner Henze and Oliver Knussen, and was awarded the Koussevitzky Tanglewood Composition Prize for that year. In 2011 he was Theme Composer for the Suntory Hall Summer Festival in Tokyo, where his newly commissioned work For Our Natural World was performed along with many other of his works in two dedicated concerts.

Yu has won numerous prizes including the 1st and 2nd triennial Paul Lowin Orchestral Prize (1990 and 1994), the Zen-On Piano 2000 composition prize, and awards in the 56th Japan Music Concours and the 35th Premio Musicale Citta di Trieste, He is also the receipiant for the Australia Council Composer Fellowship and grants from the Australia Council and other organisations such as the Ian Potter Foundation. He composed the music for the opening ceremony (Australasian Section) of the Olympic Games in Beijing (with Broadstock and Barton).

His music has been performed at ISCM World Music Days (in Switzerland, Mexico, Luxemburg and Hong Kong), and at many other festivals including Gaudeamus, Huddersfield, Munich Biennale and the Asian Composers' League (ACL) festivals.

see the list of Four Winds Festival 2012 artists

see a list of artists that have performed at previous Four Winds Festivals