PROGRAM
Ernest Bloch - Suite for Viola & Piano (1919)
Kenji Bunch - Blue Hour Duo (2022)
Rebecca Clarke - Morpheus (1917)
Florence Price - Elfentanz (1937)
Astor Piazzolla - Le Grand Tango (1982)
Jay Julio - Viola, Ari Livne - Piano
JAY’S BIO
From Uniondale, New York, first-generation Filipino-American multi-instrumentalist, composer, and writer Jay Julio (b. 1997) splits time between NYC, Philadelphia, and on tour. Jay serves as Assistant Principal Violist of the Opera Philadelphia Orchestra and as a substitute musician for the New York City Ballet, the Philadelphia Ballet, the American Composers Orchestra, and on Broadway, including over 300 performances on tour with Hamilton. Solo appearances include concertos with the Ocala Symphony, the Marquette Symphony, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, as well as recitals on the Dame Myra Hess Concert series, at the Free Library of Philadelphia, and at the University of the Philippines’ Abelardo Hall. Jay has recorded for Parma, Nonesuch, and Broadway Records, including releases nominated for 2025 and 2026 Grammy Awards, and has been heard on radio and TV across the US, Australia, and Europe both as musician and advocate, from appearances on nationally syndicated Performance Today with pianist Josh Tatsuo Cullen to interviews on major media affiliates regarding Asian-American issues.
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 served as a Tell Your Story fellow at the 2026 Spoleto Music Festival; in 2026, they were also named the recipient of the American Federation of Musicians’ Charles McDaniel Youth Award for their work towards equity in the industry. 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 past 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, Lucerne, 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. After starting formal musical training at 14, Jay graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy, received a BM from the Manhattan School of Music at 20 and a MM from the Juilliard School as a full-tuition Susan W. Rose Fellow, studying with Renee Skerik, Karen Ritscher, Heidi Castleman, Misha Amory, and Matthew Lipman. Other important mentors include Leilehua Lanzilotti, Todd Low, and Saskia Hamilton. Away from the instrument, Jay is an award-winning poet; their work can be found in the Cincinnati Review, the Mississippi Review, and elsewhere.
ARI’S BIO
Ari Livne is a classically trained pianist, actor, and versatile performer based in New York City, who loves to tell stories with and about music. Ari cares deeply about creating a warm, welcoming environment for audiences. Whether his concerts center around a single composer, a theme, or a moment in history, he always provides a unifying principle that the audience can settle into. Some performances delve deeply into the repertoire of a single composer: he performed the complete Rachmaninoff Etudes Tableaux in Elebash Hall and presented a lecture-recital on the Goldberg Variations at the Bridenthal Concert Series. Others focus on new music: he has premiered new works by the composer Cyrus Von Hochstetter and performed the American premiers of works by Peter Maxwell Davies and Volodymyr Runchak, the latter at the Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival in 2020.
Ari is also an avid collaborator and chamber musician. He recently completed a second tour of Japan with violinist Sho Omagari, performing in nine cities and doing outreach concerts at more than twenty schools and hospitals. He has appeared twice with the Aurea Ensemble in Providence, RI. His duo with cellist Clare Monfredo has spent two summers at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute and performed interactive recitals in New York, NY; Ellsworth, ME; Hudson, NY; and Philadelphia, PA.
He also recently presented programs centered around Schoenberg’s Book of Hanging Gardens and Faure’s La chanson d’Ève with mezzo-soprano Sophie Delphis in Brooklyn, NY and Concord, NH. Ari holds degrees from Yale University and The Juilliard School. He has studied acting with John Anthony and Eric Tucker, singing with Kayla Green, and more recently discovered the joy of clown school with Christopher Bayes.
arilivne.com; @arilivne jayjulio.com, @jayjulio