A competent performer indeed

He performed to a packed hall at St Mark’s Cathedral, in the City, recently. Julian infused tremendous amount of life and energy into all his pieces. He began the evening with ‘4 Preludes and Fugues’ by J S Bach’. This piece that was picked from the 20th century, portrayed various emotions from happy,  sad to excited.

Next was ‘Transcendental etude no. 10 by Liszt’ which was a fairly sombre piece. Another composition titled ‘Sonata no. 6’ by Nikolai Kapustin that has jazz influences, was playful and lively. Yet another piece ‘Hawthorne’ from piano sonata no. 2 ‘concord — C Ives, written in 1911 had a slow start and moved through a wide range of emotions before it concluded on a triumphant note. 

Julian closed the evening with ‘12 Etudes op 25’ by F Chopin.

“I don’t experiment too much with the compositions. I don’t want to tamper with the technical finesse of each piece. Every piece has its discipline and I largely adhere to that discipline,” Julian said. 

Julian first struck at the piano with piano marathon when he played at the age of 12, for 12 hours to promote the issue of peace.  He has since then performed across the world including the Rotary Young Musicians Concert in Derby and the Mansfield Music Festival and the Trondheim Chamber Music Festival, to mention a few. 

Commenting on his choice of songs for the concert in the City, Julian said a few of the pieces he chose were technically complicated.

 “A few pieces were meant to be educative and a few others entertaining. I took after my father and began learning Western classical music and ever since my interest in this genre of music has only grown,” said Julian.

Those in the audience seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed the performance. Usha Menon, a music lover said, “This is not the first time that I am coming for Julian’s concert.

Even though he’s young his understanding of the genre, that is, Western classical music, is great.”

Gita Chacko, president Forum for Teachers of Western Classical Music, observed that Julian played complicated music in a competent way. “He is largely a self-taught musician and has had no formal training in music until he was spotted and enrolled for formal education in music,” she said.