A Composer with Compassion

Julian Yu

Australian Festival of Chamber Music GOVERNOR’S GALA TOWNSVILLE CIVIC THEATRE TONIGHT 7.30PM

The Australian Festival of Chamber Music welcomes Chinese- born Julian Yu as it’s Composer- inResidence for 2018. Whilst it doesn’t invite a composer every year, Kathryn Stott has admired Yu for some time so was determined to present his music at her first AFCM as Artistic Director. Yu grew up in a family of cotton factory workers in Beijing, he played traditional Chinese instruments including the erhu and jinghu ( two- string fiddles) and was caught composing music under his desk during maths lessons for he and his mates to play. He wrote a one- act Beijing opera in his first year of high school. “I never set out to become a composer and don’t consider it a career at all – it’s just something that I love to do. It evolved naturally as a result of a series of nurturing environments and happy coincidences.” he says. The first was at the age of fifteen when his music teacher heard that China’s Central Conservatory of Music was recruiting new students for the first time since the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, and instead of auditioning as an erhu player as he thought, his teacher had entered him for the Composition Department instead! Yu spent four years at the Central Conservatory receiving a thorough grounding in the tools of composition namely harmony, counterpoint and orchestration. Yu went onto study at the Tokyo College of Music for eighteen months before migrating to Australia in 1985 and completing two composition scholarships. “One of the first things I did upon arriving in Australia was to visit the Commonwealth Employment Service. The officer asked me what my profession was and I told him I was a composer. He told me curtly that they didn’t have any jobs for composers, and promptly showed me the door. At the time I felt a little crestfallen, but I soon found a job as a casual kitchenhand!” Yu has since enjoyed an illustrious career as a composer and is thrilled that his works will be performed at five Festival concerts this year. A particular highlight for Festival goers is Yu’s Passacaglia after Biber being performed by violinist Grace Clifford at tonight’s Governor’s Gala concert. The AFCM Governor's Gala Concert starts at 7.30pm at the Townsville Civic Theatre. Tickets are still available.