About Julian
Julian Pellicano is currently a conductor with the National Ballet of Canada and serves as Music Director of the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra. Known for his versatility across a broad spectrum of genres, dynamic interpretations, and meticulous technique, Pellicano has built a wide-ranging international career spanning symphonic, ballet, live films, and popular programming. The Winnipeg Free Press has praised his “truly astonishing” versatility.
Recent engagements include appearances with orchestras and ballet companies throughout North America and abroad, including the San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Utah Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Orquestra de Valencia, Calgary Philharmonic, and Hong Kong Ballet. His guest conducting work also includes the Louisiana Philharmonic, Florida Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, Cincinnati Ballet, Orquestra Sinfônica de Porto Alegre, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and Vermont Symphony, among others.
As a conductor with the National Ballet of Canada, Pellicano brings extensive experience at the intersection of music and dance. He joined the company’s conducting staff in 2024 after serving for seven years as Music Director of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and has led numerous classical and contemporary productions. These projects have included ballets by internationally renowned choreographers such as Alexei Ratmansky, Wayne McGregor, Christopher Wheeldon, Angelin Preljocaj, James Kudelka, Twyla Tharp, Frederick Ashton, and Paul Lightfoot among many others.
Pellicano is also highly experienced in live-to-film performance, with more than 40 film projects to his credit. His repertoire includes Miloš Forman’s Amadeus, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis with its original 1927 score, the original Star Wars trilogy, many other films featuring scores by John Williams, recent blockbusters, and classic films from Hollywood’s “Golden Age.” From 2013 to 2024, he served as Associate Conductor of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, conducting hundreds of performances and contributing to the development of the orchestra’s programming and community engagement.
A musician with a penchant for collaboration, Julian has performed with an eclectic array of world-class musicians including Vadim Gluzman, Ann Schein, Timo Andres, Steven Page, Jan Arden, Paul Shaffer, Boris Berman, Benjamin Verdery, Thomas Meglioranza, James Morrison, La Bottine Souriante, Andy Summers (The Police), Rajaton, The Crash Test Dummies, Don Amero and Natalie MacMaster to name a few.
The creation of a new performance edition of George Antheil's groundbreaking 1923 work Ballet Mecanique first brought Pellicano to the public’s attention. Conductor of Norfolk Chamber Music Festival’s New Music Ensemble for more than a decade, Pellicano has been recognized for his transparent interpretations of contemporary music and many premieres including the first performances of Martin Bresnick’s critically acclaimed opera My Friend's Story and the first American performance of Hans Werner Henze’s Drei Geistliche Konzerte. In 2010, he released a recording of Ingram Marshall’s Peaceable Kingdom with the Yale Philharmonia on New World Records and recorded music by Australian composer Nicole Murphy. Other notable projects include a concert tour of Turkey leading new music that blends both western and Turkish classical instruments and a collaboration with Soprano/Director Susan Narucki and the Kallisti Ensemble on Pascal Dusapin's opera To Be Sung at the University of California San Diego.
Pellicano studied conducting at the Yale School of Music with Shinik Hahm, during which time he also worked with conductors including Kurt Masur, Peter Eötvös, Zsolt Nagy, Martyn Brabbins, and Carl St.Clair. At Yale he had the opportunity to assist guest conductors including Sir Neville Marriner, Helmuth Rilling, Reinbert De Leeuw and Peter Oundjian and he was a recipient of the Phillip F. Nelson Prize for Musical Entrepreneurship and the Presser Music Award which allowed him to travel and observe renowned conductors Simon Rattle, Daniel Barenboim, David Robertson, Bernard Haitink, John Adams and Michael Tilson Thomas in rehearsal with orchestras around the world.
From 2009 to 2013 he served as music director of the Longy School of Music Conservatory Orchestra where he developed the orchestra’s repertoire, engaged world-class soloists, and establishing a rigorous and distinctive new orchestral program. In 2013, he joined the conducting faculty of the University of Manitoba where he served as Music Director of the University of Manitoba Symphony Orchestra for seven seasons.
His musical training grew from unconventional beginnings as a primarily self-taught percussionist, timpanist, drummer, and accordionist. He later studied percussion at the Peabody Conservatory, the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, and Yale, where he was a member of the critically acclaimed Yale Percussion Group. As a percussionist, he has performed in concert halls and festivals in North America, Europe and Asia. He also holds a degree in philosophy from The Johns Hopkins University.