About Julián

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Singer, guitarist, composer, and poet Julián Muro is developing a wide-ranged artistic imprint that has earned him the Raul Urtasun-Frances Harley Scholarship For Young Emerging Artists From Argentina to participate at the Banff Centre’s Banff Musicians in Residence 2018 program in Canada and the John W. Kieley Endowment For Emerging Artists to participate at the Banff Centre’s BMiR 2019. He is currently pursuing the Performer-Composer Master of Music at the New School College of Performing Arts in New York (USA). 

Most recently, he received an Award for Excellence in Climate, Environmental Justice, and Sustainability from the Tishman Environment and Design Center for his multimedia project La Tierra, una criatura, in which field recordings and poetry are used as a starting point for musical improvisation and creation: a creative process in which the Earth is the main collaborator.

A New Music USA Creator Development Fund 2022 Awardee, he is currently working on a new album with production by acclaimed musician Dave Douglas in NY. The album will feature Douglas himself as a guest artist, the Bergamot String Quartet, and a band of highly accomplished jazz players.

During his stay in NY, he performed at Roulette Intermedium, as a part of Marisa Tornello’s SHATTER, at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden as part of Metropolis Ensemble’s Biophony invited by Shara Lunon, at around 20 shows with Sofar Sounds in NY, and in Washington DC, twice at Little Island’s Perform in the Park, and as a guest for the Bergamot String Quartet in several occasions. He also was selected as a participant in the International Contemporary Ensemble’s Ensemble Evolution program.

His stay in NY was possible thanks to the kind support of organizations such as MusiCares, Sweetrelief Musicians Fund, the University Student Senate and the Emergency Fund at the New School, the College Student Pantry, and FoodBankForNYC, among others.

In the year 2016, he released his first solo project as a producer, composer, arranger, and performer, by the name of Dingungu, a world-class band he formed with his long-time collaborator Pablo Méndez (musician of Dee-Dee Bridgewater, Tryo, Sapho, Minino Garay, among others), which highlights the African presence within Argentine traditional music and is available in all streaming services.

His latest record, Unterwegs, released in December 2020 and recorded in September 2019 with Pablo Mendez at Echolane Studios in Germany, features a set of traditional songs from Argentina, Brazil, and Cuba arranged in a personal, distinctive way, as well as his own compositions.

In 2022, one of the tracks from his ongoing project La Tierra, una criatura was included in the ambient compilation Unyoked presents Lazydaze.001 a collaboration between the sound collective Lazydaze and Unyoked, in Australia.

He was featured as a composer and performer in the interdisciplinary project Songs for Runaway Girls (2014, Argentina-Canada), recorded alto saxophones for Ariel Schlichter’s Vuelvo al Polvo EP (2017, Argentina), was a featured singer on Kenosha Kid’s record Missing Pieces (2019, USA), as Spoken Word artist in Exilio Transitorio by Gabriel Viñuela-Pelletier aka viñu-vinu (2021, Canada).

In 2018, a selection of his poetry was published in the anthology Breve Tratado del Viento Sur, in Colombia. That same year, while at the Banff Centre, Julián performed with acclaimed musicians such as Dave Douglas and Caroline Shaw.

Upon his return from Banff, the country was going through an economic, social, and political crisis that continues to this day and that encouraged him to leave for Europe with 400 dollars in his pocket, without a plan, without any musical instruments, and without a family to receive him. Unbelievable as it might have seemed not too long ago, he has managed to return to his artistic practice.

A naturalist, a traveler, and a contemporary troubadour, he has worked in the mountains of the Alps and the Andes as a porter and a hut keeper and has been a gardener since childhood.