About
Philadelphia-based Pianist and Conductor Julian Grabarek recently finished two years as an Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera. While at SFO, he worked as a member of the music staff on The Magic Flute, Carmen, Idomeneo, and the widely acclaimed world premiere of Huang Ruo’s The Monkey King. He also performed around the Bay Area in Bohème out of the Box, SFO's mobile production of La Bohème.
This year, Grabarek will music direct Suor Angelica for Art City Opera in Ardmore, Pennsylvania and will join Opera Delaware as the rehearsal pianist for Andrea Chénier. During the summer, he will join Des Moines Metro Opera as the Associate Conductor for Of Mice and Men, as well as a staff coach working with the company’s Apprentice Artist program.
As a recitalist, Grabarek is equally at home with vocalists and instrumentalists. He enjoys performing a wide range of music, from Schubert Lieder to Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. Grabarek recently performed on Merola Opera’s Schwabacher Recital Series, curated by Nicolas Phan. In the past, he has performed recitals at the Kerrytown Concert House in Ann Arbor, MI, and Bellingham Music Festival. During his time at the University of Michigan, he performed as a regular collaborator for members of the Voice and String departments and also appeared on numerous recitals at the Aspen Music Festival in summer 2022.
In fall 2023, he was a guest coach and chorus master at the University of Houston for a double bill of Offenbach’s Monsieur Choufleuri and Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortileges. He was an apprentice vocal coach at the 2023 Merola Opera Program in San Francisco where he worked on Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Act 2 from Verdi’s Otello, and appeared in Metamorphosis: a piano/vocal recital.
As the son and grandson of Polish and Czech immigrants, Mr. Grabarek has a particular passion for the music of Czech composers such as Vitězslava Kaprálová and Leoš Janáček. His first complete opera was Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, which he helped prepare at the University of Michigan. He is also a proficient harpsichordist, having studied continuo and performed as the recitativo accompanist for Don Giovanni while pursuing his graduate studies.
Grabarek completed his Master of Music degree at the University of Michigan and received a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Oberlin College and Conservatory. He is originally from Acton, Massachusetts.
