Meet The Conductor
Welcoming to the stage - Julian Powell, conductor for The Rusty Player's Orchestra.
Rusty Players in Birmingham and the Black Country have a new conductor – Julian Powell. We take five minutes with Julian to find out more about him and what he’s got planned.
Julian is a key part of The People’s Orchestra as he plays percussion for it and now sits on the Board of Trustees.
The 47-year-old from Birmingham’s Handsworth Wood got into conducting while working at Dudley Performing Arts.
“There’s a lot of potential for the Rusty Players and I’m looking forward to working on that with them,” said Julian. “I’d like to give them more of an identity and hopefully get more people involved.
“With conducting, a lot of it is a confidence game and about building up their confidence to work more as a unit.
“We have really talented musicians. The way I teach and conduct is to say ‘let’s have fun’. It’s just music at the end of the day and they all seem to go away smiling.”
Julian started his music career in marching bands and drum corps in his youth when he travelled to America to compete in competitions. He plays piano and guitar but leaned towards percussion in orchestras before becoming a conductor.
“My time in America when I was 20 was fascinating for being around people coming from that system,” he added. “America has music so engrained into its education system. I’d love to see more of that here [in the UK].
“The band scene is quickly dying over here. When I was growing up it was huge but has dwindled and there’s no one to do it in the schools”
Julian added that he was hoping to use his Black Country connections with Dudley, Wolverhampton and Sandwell music services to help link up with organisations to raise the profile of the Rusty Players even more.
