MUSE • Musicians United for Social Equity

Biography

Originally from Uniondale, New York, 25-year old first-generation Filipino-American Jay Julio (they/them) is a multi-instrumentalist, teacher, and composer-arranger currently based in NYC. Jay is the Assistant Principal Violist of the Opera Philadelphia Orchestra, a section member of the Palm Beach Opera Orchestra and Symphony in C, substitute violist with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Portland, Memphis, Virginia, and Dallas Symphony Orchestras, and has been invited to play with the American Composers Orchestra, PROTESTRA, Unsung Ensemble, ChamberQUEER, and the Metropolis Ensemble. They appeared in the official collaborative music video for Major Lazer & Marcus Mumford’s single, Lay Your Head On Me, released as a fundraiser for COVID-19 research efforts, recently performed with Nigerian artist Burna Boy in his Hollywood Bowl debut, and played behind Audra McDonald on Carnegie Hall’s Great Artists series this past December. Jay has recorded for Broadway and Nonesuch Records.

Jay has attended the Music Academy of the West, Orpheus@Mannes, the New York String Orchestra Seminar and the Aspen, Pacific, Thy, Spoleto and Lake Tahoe music festivals; they have also spent summers at the Yellow Barn Young Artists Program and the National Symphony Orchestra’s Summer Music Institute as a Young Artist of Color. They have served as a Teaching Fellow at the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, instructed at Interlochen Center for the Arts, and worked as substitute viola & chamber music faculty at the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division. They have coached the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, have been on faculty at the Stony Brook University Chamber Strings Camp, and teach strings privately online.

A prizewinner in national competitions held by the National Federation of Music Clubs and the Music Teachers National Association and recipient of a 2019 Juilliard Career Grant, Jay is indebted to the Virtu Foundation and the American Viola Society for their past support through instrument and bow loans. They were recipient of a 2020 Music Academy of the West Fast Pitch Award for their music-meets-prison-analysis organization Sound Off: Music for Bail, which was awarded a 2021 Juilliard Career Grant to further an upcoming recording project highlighting string quartet music of Florence Price, George Walker, Yaz Lancaster, and Dorothy Rudd Moore, and 2023 grants from the YoungArts Foundation, Surdna Foundation, and the Abolitionist Teaching Network.

After taking their first viola lesson at age 14 at the Mannes Preparatory Division, Jay graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy at 16 studying with Renee Skerik with their highest musical honor, the Young Artist Award, received their BM in Viola Performance from the Manhattan School of Music under Karen Ritscher on full scholarship, and received their MM at the Juilliard School on a full-tuition Susan W. Rose Fellowship under the tutelage of Heidi Castleman and Misha Amory. Other important mentors include Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti and Lina Bahn. For rhythm, Jay studies poetry.