Julian Gargiulo
Julian Lawrence Gargiulo (born November 10, 1972) is an Italian-American classical pianist.
Biography
Gargiulo was born in Naples, Italy. He studied at the Verona State Conservatory with Aureliana Randone, the Mugi Academy in Rome with Aldo Ciccolini, and the Moscow Conservatory with Mikhail Mezhlumov. In 1995 he moved to the United States, where he studied at Rowan University with Veda Zuponcic, at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University with Boris Slutsky, and at the University of Maryland with Santiago Rodriguez. After moving to New York in 1999, he founded the Sacred Heart Concert Series of Mount Vernon, New York, a program that brings classical music to underprivileged communities. He is also the director of the Water Island Classical Music Festival in the US Virgin Islands.[1]
Since 2001, he has started introducing comedy into his performances, combining piano and humor in a way that "...allows the listener to participate in the way of conceiving art and life of the great musicians of the romantic period"[2] and "...creating an atmosphere of interaction and complicity with the audience."[3] He has collaborated with musicians such as Olga Makarina, Josef Burgstaller, Octavio Vazquez, and choreographer Neta Pulvermacher. He has performed in the United States, Italy, France, Germany, England, Russia, Singapore and Australia in venues such as Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Moscow Conservatory Hall, Verona Philharmonic Hall, the Singapore Esplanade and the Seymour Theatre Centre.
Recordings
- The Romantic Piano (2003)
- Preludes - Live from Italy (2004)
- Only (2005)
- Sinfully Classical (2006)
- Appassionata (2007)
- MostlyJulian (2010)
- No Smoking (2011)