Julien Durand 

JULIEN DURAND is a French-Chinese guitarist and composer based in London. Beginning to play the guitar at the age of 8 and influenced by the music he was listening to (The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Cranberries, The Who etc...), Julien was drawn to the explorative possibilities of the guitar and started composing short songs and tunes. This attraction to the ability to express one's individuality through pure musical creation is something that has stuck throughout the years. 

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Having recently graduated from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, obtaining a BMus in Jazz with First-Class Honours, he has already established himself as a confident performer, playing with musicians of high stature such as Soweto Kinch, Arnie Somogyi, Percy Pursglove and John O'Gallagher. 

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Julien's compositional voice has been coming to fruition over the past few years. This has been shown by his recent awarding of a prize by the Warwickshire Jazz Appreciation group for his composition "Joni Meets Marc". Most recently, he has returned from spending 3 months in Brazil as part of a funded project with Arts Council England, where he explored Brazilian composition and guitar-playing with great masters such as Toninho Horta, Daniel Santiago and Guinga.