Biography

Julius P. Williams Is an award-winning conductor, composer, recording artist, educator, author and pianist. named Musical America’s Top 30 Professionals of the Year . His career has taken him from his native New York to musical venues around the globe, and has been involved virtually in every musical genre. Maestro Williams Carnegie Hall conducting debut was with the “Symphony Saint Paulia” Inaugural concerts in New York. He has conducted American Orchestras in Dallas, Buffalo, New Jersey, Oakland, Hartford, New Haven,Akron, Vermont, Knoxville, Sacramento, Paducah, Norwalk, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Savannah, Harlem Symphony , Color of Music Festival Orchestra, and the New Works Orchestra . He recently appeared with the Arkansas Symphony as an adjudicator for conductors. He was Music Director of the Washington Symphony (1998-2003) which was the official Orchestra of Washington, DC. He was also the Conductor of the Pulitzer Prize performance of Anthony Davis Opera Central Park Five originally premiering and preparing the work For Trilogy An Opera company. His past positions include, Artistic Director of the Music Festival of the Costa del Sol in Spain, and Artistic Director of the School of Choral Studies of New York State Summer School of the Arts for Ten seasons, He has conducted the Oberlin Conservatory Opera and the Cleveland Opera Theater receiving rave reviews for the performances of the Opera “Harriett Tubman” and he conducted the World premiere of the ‘Opera Edmonia’ in 2024 at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan broadcast on Michigan Public Television. He conducted a Gala performance with the Dallas Symphony at the Black Academy Third Annual Riverfest Festival in Dallas Texas. In the past, he has served as Assistant Conductor to the late Maestro Lucas Foss with The Brooklyn Philharmonic and with the American Symphony in New York. He is currently Artistic Director and Conductor of the Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra in Boston and Music Director and Conductor of the Trilogy An Opera Company in New Jersey, he also has served as Composer with the Boston Symphony Orchestra” Composer In Residence, Project” (2018-20) as well servering as a cover (understudy) conductor to the Boston Pops Orchestra (BSO) in Boston as well as a cover conductor for the Rhode Island Philharmonic. Most recently, he was the conductor of the Academy Award eligible film Sky Blossom. he was guest conductor of the Color of Music Festival in South Carolina featuring the wonderful artist Venessa Williams . In 2022 he appeared with the Inner City Youth Orchestra at the League of American Orchestras National Conference and also with the National Chorale and Orchestra at David Geffen Hall in New York ,recent past seasons included performances as Guest conductor at the Isabella Gardner Museum Boston Series , OneWorld Festival Orchestra in Virginia ,the Color of Music Festival Orchestra in Sacramento, the Monteux Festival in Maine, and a gala performance with the group “Sweet Honey and the Rock” at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston , and the Celebrity Series of Boston with the Berklee Contemporary Orchestra. Maestro Williams Internationally has performed and recorded with The Prague Radio Symphony, and The Moscow Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil José Joaquín de Olmedo in Ecuador, Principal Military Orchestra of the Defense Ministry of the Russian Federation,The Dvorak Symphony Orchestra, The Volvodanksa Symphony of Serbia, The Dubrovnik Symphony of Croatia, The Brno State Philharmonic, The Bohuslav-Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra, The Prague Studio Orchestra and Orchestra Philharmonic Del Cafe at the International Festival in Columbia comfamiliarrisaralda.

Julius Williams’ discography includes the critically acclaimed “Symphonic Brotherhood” a collection of African-American symphonic music, “Shades of Blue,” “The New American Romanticism,” Somewhere Far Away, Places in Time, The American Soloist and Midnight Tolls, all available on the Albany Records label. “Moments of Arrival”on Centaur Records and “The Bird That Wants to Fly” a children opera on Naxos/Roven Records.In 2024,25 saw his recent recordings Alone/Together The Dreams & Diversity of the American Composer and A Legacy of African American Classical Spirit released on the Albany Record /Parma Label. In 2026 marks a new symphonic release on the Parma Label of orchestral music with the Prague Studio Orchestra. His recordings are on the Albany, Parma, Centaur, Naxos and Videmus Record labels and they were featured as the recording of the month on Sirius XM.

In addition to his conducting and composing careers, Williams maintains a demanding schedule of speaking engagements, consulting, and academics. A dedicated educator, Williams has served on the faculties of Wesleyan University, the University of Hartford, and the University of Vermont. He has been Visiting Conductor of Orchestra at Skidmore College in Saratoga, NY, Affiliate Artist-Teacher of Composition at Purchase College of the State University of New York, and Co-Director of Videmus Records, and Visiting Associate Professor and Jessie Ball Dupont Scholar at Shenandoah University and Conservatory in Virginia. He is presently Professor of Composition and Artistic Director/conductor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and Music Director of Trilogy An Opera Company. Julius Williams’ educational consulting and speaking engagements have included (2024) in Spain as he served as President of Judges at the International Wind Band Contest for the “City of Valencia” in Spain. He also served as an adjudicator for Opera America and as a commentator with the Boston Lyric Opera. He has been an artist at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Russia, and the Shanghai Conservatory in China, where he also served as the first American Adjudicator of the Rivers Music Composers Competition. He is the Immediate Past President of the International Conductors Guild, serving as President for four years, and he is also Chair of the League of American Orchestras Conductors Constituency and a mentor for the League in 2025. Additionally, he has served on the Advisory Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts and Adjudication Committee for the Fulbright Awards,Adjudicator for ASCAP, Adjudicator for the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, Educational Consultant to the Norwalk Symphony in Connecticut, and he regularly serves as Guest Curator and Host for the Sirius XM Radio Program “Living American” Program.

A prolific composer, Maestro Williams has created works for virtually every genre of contemporary classical performance, including opera, ballet, orchestra, chamber ensemble, chorus, and solo voice, dance, musical theatre, and film. His music has been performed by countless symphony orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Detroit Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Richmond, Hartford, and countless orchestras around the world. In the 2024-2025 season, the Boston Symphony performed his “Songs for My Culture” for Chamber Orchestra. He has also served as Composer-in-Residence of Connecticut’s Nutmeg Ballet Company, which premiered his ballet, “Cinderella”. The opera “Guinevere” was performed at the Aspen Music Festival and at the Dubrovnik Music Festival in Croatia. He was the composer of the score for the film “What Color is Love?” and he also scored the theatrical production of “In Dahomey” . His Cantata “A Journey to Freedom” was performed for the Reston Chorale and Festival Orchestra in Virginia. He composed the music “Dreams” for the Boston Children’s Choir’s “Raising the Roof” concert, which was televised on a nationally critically acclaimed television. It was also recorded on their 2010 CD. He also wrote and was commissioned to write the music to the score to Those Heroes Who Healed a Nation for the dedication of the Shaw 54th Regiment memorial performed in 2022 by the “Boston Children’s”Chorus and as well for the 2022 Boston Pops July 4 spectacular performed and the world premiere of the orchestral version was on National Television with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and Boston Pops Orchestra, conducted by Keith Lockhart. In addition, he composed the Music for the One Hundred Anniversary of the Hartt School of Music, University of Hartford with a composition for jazz ensemble, dance, and choir.

Julius P. Williams is the recipient of awards for musical and academic achievement, including receiving an Honorary Doctorate from Keene State College in New Hampshire, Musical America’s Top 30 Professionals of the Year, the Detroit Symphony “Emerging Composer Award”, the Gracie Allen Documentary Award, the Distinguished Medal of Artistic Achievement of the Ecuador Youth Symphony Orchestra Foundation, the Honorary Distinguished Alumnus Award of Langston University, the Marquis Who’s Who Lifetime Achievement Award 2017, the National Culture of the Arts Award of the Association of Foreign Language Teachers of New York, and he has also received ASCAP Awards in Composition for the past forty years. Julius P. Williams has been featured on National Television as a featured artist profiled on CBS News Sunday Morning.