Julian Wagstaff (born 1970 in Edinburgh) is a Scottish composer of classical music and musical theatre.
Born in Edinburgh, Wagstaff originally majored in German language and politics, and graduated from the University of Reading in 1993. Wagstaff worked as a translator and interpreter in the German language before turning to music as a profession in the late 1990s. His interest in language and political history continues to be reflected in much of his music and in his theatre libretti.
He came to public attention with the musical John Paul Jones (2001), based on the life of the Scots-born sailor and hero of the American Revolution.[1] Premiered in Edinburgh in 2001, this was the first of the composer's works to reach a significant audience. In it, Wagstaff's eclectic compositional style (which frequently involves the integration of several very different styles within one work) began to emerge.[2] John Paul Jones was revived as a concert version in 2010 in association with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.[3]
The composer began to study musical composition at the University of Edinburgh with Professor Nigel Osborne in 2001, earning a Master's degree in music in 2002 and a PhD in 2008.
Wagstaff's specific interest in German history, particularly the history of the former German Democratic Republic,[4] is reflected in Treptow for string orchestra (2005), his most-performed work. This piece, which won the 2005 Emre Araci Prize, was inspired by the Soviet War Memorial in Treptow Park in east Berlin.
In August 2007, Julian Wagstaff presented his hour long chamber opera The Turing Test on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.[5] The opera takes its name from the test proposed by the English mathematician Alan Turing for human level intelligence in a machine.[6] A recording of his Piano Quintet was released in the same year on an album by the Edinburgh Quartet recorded by Calum Malcolm entitled Frontiers and Bridges.[7]
Wagstaff lives and works in his native city. His works are widely performed throughout Scotland and beyond.
His cousin is the writer Rich Johnston.