Composition Coaching
Find your voice within the Arabic maqam tradition.
Perhaps it’s for a particular project? Or you’re new to composing?
Whatever your needs, sessions - ranging from a one-off consultation to individual plans - are designed to help you find your own answers, inspired by the tradition.
Areas of interest may include: the details of form, style, historical performance practice, maqam characteristics, instrumentation etc.; and/or the practicalities of the creative process itself - how to go from a ‘neat idea’ to polished piece, figuring out how you work best.
The goal is to help you find clarity for the way forward in your own style.
Julian studied composition at the Junior Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, and then at Girton College, Cambridge, winning the 2008 Rima Alamuddin Prize for composition.
In his research (MPhil Worcester College, Oxford; PhD King’s College London) he focused on modern soloist styles of composing for the oud, learning with Iraqi master Ahmed Mukhtar for eight years, carrying out fieldwork with industry professionals including the renowned composer Khaled Muhammed Ali, composer-producer Shakir Hassan, and Palestinian oud soloist Adel Salameh, amongst many others.
In his music these days, Julian is strongly inspired by the sounds of 1920s-40s Egypt, counting Muhammed al Qasabgi, Muhammad Abdel Wahhab, Da’ud Husni, Ahmed Sabri al Negredi, Sami al Showa, Umm Kulthum and Nadira Amin as particular heroes and ongoing guides.
If you have questions, get in touch!