Our Interview with Julian Velasco

We were thrilled to interview saxophonist and recent Cedille Records Emerging Artists Competition Winner, Julian Velasco. He will be joining Chicago Sinfonietta for the first time this September at Chicago Sinfonietta NEXT on September 17th and 19th. 

CS: Julian, thank you for sharing your time with us. Let’s start at the beginning: Can you tell us a little bit about your background in music? 

I was raised from a musical family where both of my parents are professional musicians in Los Angeles, so music has been a part of life for as long as I can remember! I started as a pianist when I was young, but when I joined my middle school band program, I chose to play saxophone. My father is a professional jazz saxophonist himself, so it was an easy choice because l already had a teacher! When I went off to high school at Orange County School of the Arts, I met their saxophone instructor James Barrera who made me aware of “classical” saxophone for the first time. I remember him showing me recordings of classical saxophonist and being awe-struck by how beautiful the sound was. For me, that was a turning point in my musical trajectory. 

For me it’s the sound of the saxophone that blows my mind still to this day. No sound is ever quite the same and in fact can almost sound like a completely different instrument at times. For me, that’s a huge draw and is why I chose to use it for my music.

I really enjoy my life outside of performing to still be involved with music in some way. When I’m not doing solo projects, I’m the Artistic Director and soprano saxophonist of the Chicago-based quartet ~Nois, am completing my doctoral studies at Northwestern University, and also work at the music venue Evanston SPACE. 

CS: You were raised in the diverse musical culture of Los Angeles. How has that influenced your playing and the way you approach music in general? 

Growing up in Los Angeles, I was surrounded by incredible musicians that played in so many different kinds of projects at the same time. I think that’s why I ended up being a double major in classical and jazz performance and why I surround myself with projects that jump between genre-lines. Growing up, people used to say to me “It’s all just music!” and I couldn’t agree more. 

CS: Congratulations on being named the first-ever Cedille Records Emerging Artist! What can we expect to see in your debut solo album “As We Are” releasing this coming August? 

It has been such an honor to be recognized by Cedille as their Emerging Artist, it does frequently feel like a dream come true to join the roster of some of my greatest musical heroes. This music I am the most passionate about and I am so grateful to Jim and the whole Cedille team for being completely on board with what music I wanted to share. 

It’s hard to say quite exactly what to expect for this record because it goes to so many different places! As We Are is intended to capture the place I am in my life musically and the people I have been lucky enough to surround myself with... which happens to span a great deal of unique sound worlds. All of this music has been written in the past 50 years, with most being written in the past decade alone. Of the 6 works on the album, 4 of them will be their world premiere recordings, so I can say with confidence that it will feature lots of music you’ve never heard before! The first half features myself and my amazing collaborator/pianist Winston Choi on new virtuosic works tenor, alto, and soprano saxophones that draw from all different kinds of classical, jazz, gospel, and pop influences. The second component of the album is all solo electronic music, which is created by making hundreds of different layers of myself playing soprano saxophone (including some harmonicas and beer bottles too) to create its own kind of ensemble that I interact with. 

CS: What would be your advice for young musicians trying to succeed in a competitive career such as performing? 

For me, authenticity is everything. I think one of the most important lessons I continue to come back to is that you really have to believe in the music you are playing in order for your audience to connect. No matter how polished and perfect you might make something, people can feel that kind of energy if you’re not completely in it. Whether it be a baroque flute transcription, a classic concerto, or a brand new premiere, I spend a lot of my time finding the why in what I'm performing. The works that I have the strongest answer to the why are almost always the parts of the performance that people feel connected to the strongest. The why can come from anywhere… whether it be a feeling, memory, person, anything! That can really transform a work for me. I truly believe that kind of connection is something so hard to tangibly say, but it is definitely felt. 

As a result, there’s a lot of music that I haven’t performed yet because I haven’t found my own connection to it and that’s totally okay. There is music I didn’t appreciate years ago that I now find myself obsessed with and vice-versa. I try my best to listen to myself and where I am at this moment. It isn’t always where I want to be, but acceptance of that process has found me a lot of success and musical friendships along the way. 

CS: You will be presenting your Symphony Center concert-debut performing Roberto Sierra’s “Saxophone Concerto” with the Chicago Sinfonietta this coming September. What elements about this piece do you think the audience should listen for? What are you most excited about this performance? 

I couldn’t be more thrilled to share Roberto Sierra’s Concerto for Saxophones with such an incredible orchestra! This piece is incredibly unique in that it was written for the great Detroit Jazz saxophone legend James Carter and Sierra gives a good amount of freedom to the performer to even improvise throughout the work! The work will leave you sometimes wondering what is being improvised, and what is written down. That is a challenging feat to do as a composer, but Sierra captures it masterfully. Not only that, but this concerto asks for the soloist to play not just one saxophone, but rather switch between the tenor and soprano saxophones. This work will showcase a huge variety of musical worlds that the soloist can inhabit. It’s one of the reasons I knew this concerto would be perfect for this concert. I’ll be switching back and forth between my jazz and classical backgrounds throughout the work and keep the audience guessing. 

After a bustling first movement, the second movement switches pace to a gorgeous melody on the soprano saxophone. As we move towards the end of this concerto, there will be a completely improvised cadenza that launches us into a bustling and swinging blues finale with the tenor saxophone roaring over the orchestra. It is an electrifying work that should make for a wonderful evening. 

CS: You have degrees in both Classical and Jazz Performance. Can you tell us how your experience in both styles has made you a better performer? 

Jumping between music that is notated and music that is mostly learned by ear both definitely helps the other. The skillsets required for each are incredibly useful in general, and the musicians I look up to always incorporate both to some capacity. I think that the most important takeaway I got from really digging into these two different styles is that they’re two sides of the same coin. We are always looking for authenticity, expression, and to enable our music making to be unhindered and these different backgrounds are both trying to get to that same moment... just in completely unique ways. 

CS: Last but not least, what do you do when you are not playing your saxophone? 

I love playing Rocket League and pretty much any board game I can get my hands on. 

CS: Thank you for joining us, Julian! We look forward to seeing you at the concert hall this September!