Lone Star Youth Winds Coordinator Jennifer Brenkus spoke with composer Julie Giroux to gather some facts about her life and musical upbringing. Julie Giroux joins the Lone Star Youth Winds on Sunday, May 13, 2018 at Moody Performance Hall in Dallas.
Julie is an accomplished horn and piano performer who began playing the piano at age 3. Her first piece was published when she was just 8 years old. She composed her first band piece at age 12, which was published by Southern Music Company when she was 15.
She attended Louisiana State and Boston Universities where she studied Music Composition with John Williams, Bill Conti and Jerry Goldsmith to name a few.
Julie is the winner of 3 Emmy Awards and has been nominated 7 times. She won her first Emmy in 1988 and was the youngest person to ever win that award as well as the first woman!
She has over 100 film and television credits. Her work for TV includes North and South, Dynasty and The Colby’s; film work includes Karate Kid II, White Men Can’t Jump, and Broadcast News.
Julie is privileged to have arranged for famous artists like Celine Dion, Paula Abdul, Dudley Moore, Liza Minelli, Madonna, Reba McIntyre, Little Richard, Billy Crystal, Michael Jackson and many others.
A few fun facts about Julie:
- Half of her commissions are for the fee of $5.00 or for free
- She adopts dogs off death row and composes with a dog in her lap, ALWAYS!
- She’s an avid video gamer and alpha and beta tests games in addition to composing music for them. Her current favorites include: Far Cry 5 and The Dying Light and her all-time favorites: Skyrim, Red Dead, Assassins Creed, Fallout 4 and State of Decay.
- Some of her other hobbies are gardening, writing books and cutting bottles for arts and crafts.