Julian Schneemann
was raised by classical musicians, educated by jazz masters and surrounded by popular culture. Working with musicians from all over the globe, he learned from all kinds of cultures, like Arabic, African, South American and Indian. All these influences have been formative for his musical identity and in his imaginative piano playing and composing, Julian likes to exploit this diversity. His ambition in music is to unite and connect different genres, cultures and people.

In 2011, Julian won the composition prize “Op weg naar het Nieuwjaarsconcert”. He studied jazz piano at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2015, and in that same year released his debut album Roundabout. The album, described by Allaboutjazz.com as “An integral, coherent artistic statement” brought the worlds of classical, jazz and pop music together into a single story, and was internationally well-acclaimed. In 2016, Julian released the album FLY with the ensemble Ikarai, which tells the story of Icarus in sound. FLY was described as “A journey I can recommend to anyone” by Dutch TV-host Tijl Beckand.

Besides his activities as a pianist and composer in his own groups, Julian is also working as a pianist, keyboard player, arranger and composer for other bands and ensembles. He has played piano and keyboards with pop artists such as GOSTO and Angelo Boltini. He worked for among others the Netherlands Wind Ensemble (NBE), FUSE and Amsterdam Sinfonietta, for whom he wrote countless arrangements in different styles, ranging from classical, to world music and pop. His arrangement of Michael Nyman’s Knowing The Ropes was described by Nyman himself as “One of the best-ever arrangements of my music“.

Several of his compositions were played by the NBE at their famous annual New Year’s Concerts, broadcasted live on TV from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Important projects with the NBE include Fearful Symmetries, for which Julian made a new version of the great piece by John Adams, Rameau & the Greeks, his unique program in which he brought together and arranged music of the baroque composer with traditional music from Crete, and in 2020 The Unknown Chaplin, premiering two new compositions he made for films by the legendary comedian. In 2018 Julian received the Grachtenfestival composition prize and the famous Dutch composer Theo Loevendie described him as “A truly gifted composer and pianist who adopts elements from pop, jazz and classical music in his own authentic and convincing way.”

Currently, Julian’s main focus is on his project Caravan: A journey through the worlds of classical, jazz and folk. Since the start of the project in 2017, the group has played at the great stages in the Netherlands, like the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Paradiso, De Doelen and the Bimhuis, and festivals like the Grachtenfestival and November Music. The group frequently plays live on national TV, on the show Podium Witteman among others, and their music is often played on radio. Their debut album Caravan was well-acclaimed and described as “World fusion at it’s best – melancholic, uplifting, adventurous, exciting, and above all breathtakingly beautiful“. In 2019, three great young singers with Indian, Namibian and Syrian roots were invited into the ‘Caravan’ for the project Ode to Tomorrow and the group released their second album, Caravan II: “If possible even more subtle and more sublime than the first!“. Their Podium Witteman TV performance was chosen as one of the highlights of the year. In 2019 Caravan also premiered their children theatre show, a collaboration with Oorkaan. In this way already thousands of children in the Netherlands got in touch with their music.