Guest Artist Recital: Jay Julio, viola and Josh Tatsuo Cullen, piano
After first meeting on tour playing together in Broadway’s Hamilton, first-generation Filipino-American violist Jay Julio and Japanese-American pianist Josh Tatsuo Cullen are taking the main stage in a duo tour highlighting music by diverse composers with ties to the United States. Featuring premieres of pieces by Courtney Bryan, James Lee III, and Jay Julio, new arrangements of works by Nicanor Abelardo and Constancio de Guzman, and other works by Ernest Bloch, Astor Piazzolla, and Rebecca Clarke, this program will be performed across Michigan and the Chicago area from March 2-8, 2026, beginning with this first show at Grand Valley State University's Sherman van Solkema Recital Hall. Free to attend, no RSVP required.
PROGRAM:
Courtney Bryan - Island Baby Reflections (world premiere, viola version)
Nicanor Abelardo / arr. Jay Julio - Kundiman (regional premiere of arrangement)
James Lee III - Viola Sonata (regional premiere)
Astor Piazzolla - Le grand tango
Rebecca Clarke - Morpheus
BIOS:
From Uniondale, New York, first-generation Filipino-American violist and composer Jay Julio splits time between NYC, Philadelphia, and on tour. Jay serves as Assistant Principal Violist of the Opera Philadelphia Orchestra and has performed with the American Composers Orchestra, the the Dallas Symphony, and for over a year with the Angelica touring company of Hamilton. Solo appearances include concertos with the Ocala Symphony, the Marquette Symphony, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Jay has recorded for Parma, Nonesuch, and Broadway Records and on 2025 and 2026 Grammy-Award nominated releases, and they have been heard on radio/TV across the US, Australia, and Europe both as musician and equity advocate. They are a 2025 recipient of an Interdisciplinary New York State Council for the Arts grant and a 2025 YoungArts Alumni Microgrant to support the development of their original musical/literary/visual work america is in the heart, and will serve as a Tell Your Story fellow at the 2026 Spoleto Music Festival, working with members of the Charleston, SC community to devise a collaborative artistic work through the lens of local experiences.
A prizewinner in competitions held by the Music Teachers National Association, the National Federation of Music Clubs, and the YoungArts Foundation, Jay is indebted to the Virtu Foundation and the American Viola Society for further support in the form of instrument and bow loans during their studies. They are an alumnus of the Music Academy of the West, the New York String Orchestra Seminar and the Yellow Barn Young Artists Program, with other festival appearances at Aspen (New Horizons Fellow), Pacific, Spoleto, and Cabrillo. As educator, Jay has served as a Teaching Fellow at the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, on faculty at the Stony Brook University Chamber Strings Camp, and as substitute viola & chamber music faculty at the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division. They have been invited to serve on grant panels for the New York State Council for the Arts, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the MAP Fund.
Born in Hawaii and raised outside of Detroit, Japanese-American pianist and conductor Josh Tatsuo Cullen is acclaimed for his “astounding mixture of coolness and intensity" (Stuttgart Zeitung) and has been praised for his “delicious” collaboration by The New York Times.
His deep interest in works by underrepresented composers led him to record Scenes in Tin Can Alley: Piano Music of Florence Price, which introduced the first commercial recordings of many of Price’s newly rediscovered solo piano miniatures. Gramophone called it an “absolutely lovely disc” played with “flair, finesse, and conviction.” The album is frequently heard on radio stations across the country, and Josh’s live performance of “Clouds” has been broadcast multiple times on the nationally syndicated classical music program Performance Today.
He recorded the world premiere of Recuerdos Diaspóricos (2018) by fellow Michigan native James Lee III, as well as Beethoven’s piano concertos nos. 1, 2 and 3, and Mozart’s concerto for two pianos with his mentor, Paul Badura-Skoda. At age nine he performed and recorded Mozart's Piano Concerto in A major, K. 488 with the Moscow Philharmonic. He has also appeared as soloist with the Detroit Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Fort Worth Symphony, Ann Arbor Symphony, and Otsu Philharmonic orchestras.
Event Links
Website: https://go.evvnt.com/3471581-0
