Julian Wachner

Having performed all the vocal music written by J.S. Bach, Julian Wachner has distinguished himself as a leading international scholar and interpreter of this repertoire. Currently Wachner is Music Director for the Concerto Vocale Foundation. In March of 2025, Julian Wachner launched the first of a series of historical premiere performances in Munich, Germany featuring Bach cantata works performed according to Bach’s own instructions in his famous Entwurff written in 1730.
As Director of Music at New York’s historic Trinity Church Wall Street for over a decade, Wachner quickly established Trinity Church as a world-renowned performing arts center with an annual season numbering hundreds of events. In 2013, he was nominated for a GRAMMY award for his recording on the Musica Omnia label of Handel’s Israel in Egypt with Trinity Church Wall Street musicians. Based on his achievements, Wachner was appointed artistic director of Michigan’s Grand Rapids Bach Festival in March 2018. Elsewhere in the Early Music world Maestro Wachner has led such ensembles as Seraphic Fire; Philharmonia Baroque; and Apollo’s Fire based in Cleveland, Ohio.
Julian Wachner career also extends to the symphonic and opera repertoire where he has served as guest conductor at elite orchestras around the world. As a frequently commissioned composer and advocate of contemporary music, Maestro Wachner often introduced new works with the Philadelphia Orchestra; the New York Philharmonic and Pittsburgh Symphonies; the Kansas City, Montreal, Pacific, Calgary orchestras, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. He also made notable appearances with the eclectic Bang on a Can All-Stars and the National Arts Centre Orchestra.
On the opera side, Julian Wachner has lead productions with the San Francisco Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Hawaii Opera Theater, Juilliard Opera Theater, and New York City Opera, as well as conducted programs for Carnegie Hall Presents, National Sawdust, and the Lincoln Center Festival.
He served as conductor and music director for three Pulitzer-prize winning works (Julia Wolfe’s “Anthracite Fields”, Ellen Reid’s “Prism”, Du Yun’s “Angel’s Bone”). Aside from Israel in Egypt, Julian Wachner received additional GRAMMY nominations in a variety of categories.
A prolific organ recitalist, Wachner was primarily responsible for commissioning three new pipe organs for Trinity Church Wall Street, St. Paul’s Chapel (Columbia University) and the Chapel of All Saints in New York City following years of digital replacements after the devastating events of 9/11.
Wachner’s own compositions have been variously described as “jazzy, energetic, and ingenious,” (Boston Globe), having “splendor, dignity, outstanding tone combinations, sophisticated chromatic exploration…a rich backdrop, wavering between a glimmer and a tingle...,” while the Washington Post described Wachner’s music as “bold and atmospheric,” having “an imaginative flair for allusive text setting,” Most recently, Early Music America noted that “The Vision of the Archangels” album soars and entwines, builds and diminishes, with absolutely gut-wrenching beauty.” As an academic, Wachner earned his doctorate from Boston University and has held faculty positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University’s School of Theology and at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University where he was a tenured professor. Among his many class offerings, he is well known for his courses investigating the intersection of hermeneutics and liturgy with informed performance practice of J. S. Bach.
Julian Wachner began his career at age 7 when he joined the Choir of Men and Boys at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Buffalo, NY and continued in this field as a lead boy chorister at the St. Thomas Choir School in New York City. There he studied composition, organ and improvisation with Dr. Gerre Hancock. Currently he lives in Indianapolis with his two children, Tallis and Tabitha.
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