Julian Joseph Solo

We are beyond excited to be welcoming the masterful pianist Julian Joseph to Wolverhampton for a rare solo gig, marking his upcoming 60th birthday.

Acclaimed as one of the finest jazz musicians to emerge this side of the Atlantic, Julian has devoted his long career to championing the music across the British Isles and into the far corners of the globe.

He has forged a reputation beyond his formidable skills as a composer and performer, and is universally recognised as a highly knowledgeable and engaging broadcaster, musical ambassador and cultural advocate. His charitable work and generous skills as an educator have made a major contribution to Britain’s cultural landscape and heritage.

He is a greatly admired and respected figure in British Jazz, celebrated for his service to others and for sharing all the benefits of his life in music to inspire the musicians of the future. A member of Courtney Pine’s hugely successful band in the 80s and 90s, he made four high-profile albums of his own for East West, beginning in 1991 with The Language Of Truth.

While a 19-year-old scholarship student at Berklee College in New York, he also had a real baptism of fire, comprehensively rising to the challenge of playing in Branford Marsalis’s quartet in front of five-figure audiences.

Over the past 35 years, Julian has made ground-breaking advances for jazz in the UK. He was the first Black British jazz musician to host a series at London’s Wigmore Hall, and the first to headline a late-night concert at the BBC Proms with his All-Star Big Band.

As a composer Julian has written original works for symphony orchestra, big band and chamber ensemble, and received major commissions from the BBC, the Hackney Music Development Trust, the City of London Festival and the London Jazz Festival. Meanwhile, a new operatic work based on the legend of Tristan and Isolde was premiered at London’s Southbank Centre in the October of 2018.