Julien Monette
- Composer
Michael Charles Julien Monette (b. 2001) is a pianist and composer of new music located in Newport News, Virginia. He performs music of all genres including classical, jazz, and contemporary music, and composes/sound designs for films, videogames, concerts, audiobooks, and theatrical productions. Julien's music has been described as "transcendental", "bewilderingly multifaceted", and "an exploration of every emotion and sound available to the 21st century ear".
Julien began to play the piano at age eight and compose at age fourteen, although he received no formal training until he began his collegiate education at Christopher Newport University in 2020. Monette graduated in 2024 with a BM in Piano Performance and Composition. While at CNU, he studied piano with Dr. Benjamin Corbin, Dr. Ruta Smedina-Starke, and Dr. Seung-Hye Kim, and studied composition with Dr. Maxwell Tfirn and Dr. Kelly Rossum. In 2023, Monette received an Honorable Mention award for his performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto 23, K. 488 in the CNU Concerto-Aria Competition, and he received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Indie Film Festival for his work on Edward Wandrick's "Everywhere"(2022). His work on Don-Dmitri Joseph's "Last Option"(2023) was described by The Independent Critic as "appealing". Additionally, Julien has performed, recorded, and released over 250 compositions.
Julien's musical ouvre can seem hard to approach due to its sheer scale and variety. As a composer, Monette strongly believes in the use of music as language, where emotion is conjured by the evolution of sound over time in the same way that meaning is elucidated by the ordering and conclusion of words in a sentence. In composing using this perspective, Julien forms entirely personal and diverse sound worlds, inspired by EDM, free jazz, the Baroque period, industrial noise, natural soundscapes, image color composition and rhythm, collaborative improvisation, Western and Eastern spiritualities, and a deep love of all things nonsensical. Julien's artistic process extends to using (or misusing) instruments and software to explore and push the boundaries of music while maintaining some roots in traditional elements. Julien cites his main inspirational figures as J.S. Bach, Frederic Chopin, John Cage, Pierre Schaeffer, Anthony Braxton, Howard Shore, and Jeremy Soule.
Julien began to play the piano at age eight and compose at age fourteen, although he received no formal training until he began his collegiate education at Christopher Newport University in 2020. Monette graduated in 2024 with a BM in Piano Performance and Composition. While at CNU, he studied piano with Dr. Benjamin Corbin, Dr. Ruta Smedina-Starke, and Dr. Seung-Hye Kim, and studied composition with Dr. Maxwell Tfirn and Dr. Kelly Rossum. In 2023, Monette received an Honorable Mention award for his performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto 23, K. 488 in the CNU Concerto-Aria Competition, and he received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Indie Film Festival for his work on Edward Wandrick's "Everywhere"(2022). His work on Don-Dmitri Joseph's "Last Option"(2023) was described by The Independent Critic as "appealing". Additionally, Julien has performed, recorded, and released over 250 compositions.
Julien's musical ouvre can seem hard to approach due to its sheer scale and variety. As a composer, Monette strongly believes in the use of music as language, where emotion is conjured by the evolution of sound over time in the same way that meaning is elucidated by the ordering and conclusion of words in a sentence. In composing using this perspective, Julien forms entirely personal and diverse sound worlds, inspired by EDM, free jazz, the Baroque period, industrial noise, natural soundscapes, image color composition and rhythm, collaborative improvisation, Western and Eastern spiritualities, and a deep love of all things nonsensical. Julien's artistic process extends to using (or misusing) instruments and software to explore and push the boundaries of music while maintaining some roots in traditional elements. Julien cites his main inspirational figures as J.S. Bach, Frederic Chopin, John Cage, Pierre Schaeffer, Anthony Braxton, Howard Shore, and Jeremy Soule.