Today we’d like to introduce you to Julius Rodriguez.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Julius. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was born and grew up in White Plains, NY. Growing up in church, I would come home and bang on pots and pans until my parents bought me a toy drumset. We have a family friend named Audrey McCallum (the first African-American to attend the Peabody Institute) who gave me my first keyboard at age three and encouraged my parents to enroll me in piano lessons. I studied classical piano while teaching myself drums. At six years old, my piano teacher at the time, John Senakwami, introduced me to jazz music. My father being an avid jazz fan, would take me to jazz concerts both local and in NYC. Eventually, I started playing in church. Later on, I studied classical and jazz piano, as well as jazz drums at the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Division.
Throughout high school, I participated in several prestigious music programs such as the Grammy Camp Jazz Ensemble, the National Young Arts Program, and the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Workshop. In 2016, I attended the Juilliard School for a couple of years while also maintaining a professional career making a name for myself as well as going on to support a wide variety of artists including Macy Gray, Damien Sneed, Brasstracks, Carmen Lundy, Jazzmeia Horn, Keyon Harrold, Ben Williams, Nick Hakim, Braxton Cook, Gabriel Garzón-Montano, and more.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the challenges along the way?
Challenges? You mean opportunities? Deciding to be an artist is a challenge itself. But it is also the opportunity to put 200% of yourself into what you do. So for me, with this truly being what I want to do, what I believe I was meant to do, I’ve never really felt challenged by any obstacles. I’ve just always believed that anything is possible and worked super hard. And with some of the stories I’ve seen and opportunities I’ve been blessed with, it’s hard to believe there is anything that isn’t possible.
Can you give our readers some background on your music?
I am a musician. I spent my formative years studying mostly piano and drums, and I’ve always considered myself a multi-instrumentalist. Guitar and bass are also on that list, but everything is always a work in progress.
I play, I compose, I arrange, basically deal with all things instrumental.
My background is split between classical, jazz, and gospel styles, which has equipped me with skills to adapt to ANY musical situation, and I take advantage of that. I don’t really like to stick to one genre, and my favorite music is the music that transcends genre. I’m very proud how wide my list of credits ranges (Wynton Marsalis to A$AP Rocky to Meshell Ndegeocello, to even a song that features Vince Gill). I don’t limit myself, and I like to work with others that also refuse to limit themselves.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success for me is being able to pay back to music what it has done for me. And being that music continues to do things for me everyday, there will never be a particular point to which I “achieve” success. It’ll always be an ongoing thing. Being able to touch someone, to evoke emotion, to inspire, to communicate–these are my goals in music. This is what I believe is the purpose of music. “Where words fail, music speaks.”
Contact Info:
- Website: www.orangejuliusmusic.com
- Email: Charlie@Afterschool.Club
- Instagram: @OrangeJuliusMusic
- Facebook: facebook.com/orangejuliusmusic
- Twitter: twitter.com/orangejulius_
- Other: linktr.ee/orangejuliusmusic
Image Credit:
Photos by Anna McGirr, Charles Roussel, Avery J. Savage, Jenny Hwang, Morgan Guerin, and Justine Vanderpool
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