{{short description|American classical composer}} {{Infobox person | name = Julian Work | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = Julian Cassander Work | birth_date = September 25, 1910 | birth_place = Nashville, Tennessee | death_date = June 15, 1995 | death_place = Tolland, Massachusetts | education = Fisk University | employer = CBS | occupation = arranger, composer | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = John Wesley Work Jr. (father) | relatives = John Wesley Work (grandfather), John Wesley Work III (brother) }}
'''Julian Cassander Work''' (September 25, 1910—June 15, 1995) was an arranger and composer.
Work was born in Nashville, Tennessee, to a family of professional musicians. His grandfather, John Wesley Work (1848–1923) was a composer and arranger for the Fisk Jubilee Singers; his father, John Wesley Work Jr. (1871–1925) was the first African-American collector of folk songs and spirituals, and also a choral director, educator and songwriter; his brother John Wesley Work III (1901–1967) was a composer, educator, choral director, musicologist and scholar of African-American folklore and music; his mother, Agnes Hayes Work, was a singer who also helped train the Fisk Jubilee Singers.<ref name=southern>Eileen Southern, ''Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musician'' (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1982), p. 415.</ref>
Work studied music with local teacher Mary E. Chamberlain and was involved in musical activities from an early age, participating in neighborhood musical groups and performing as a jazz pianist.<ref name=wyatt>Lucius R. Wyatt, "Composers Corner: Julian C. Work," ''Black Music Research Newsletter'' 8, no. 3, p. 5.</ref><ref name=southern/> He studied composition with his brother John Wesley Work III while attending Fisk University, where he majored in sociology.<ref name=wyatt/><ref name=grove>William Burres Garcia and Willie Strong, "Work Family: Julian C(assander), Work," ''Grove Music Online''. (accessed 11 July 2021)</ref> By 1929 he had moved to New York City and was playing piano on the radio.<ref>For example, see "Radio Programs for Tuesday, August 20," ''New York Herald Tribune'' (August 19, 1929), p. G3.</ref> He became a staff arranger for CBS Radio, becoming one of the first Black American composers to write music for radio and television.<ref name=grove/> He was also the sole music arranger for the Voice of Firestone on radio and television.<ref name=wyatt/> Work was also a member of the American Society of Music Arrangers and served on its national board in the mid-1940s.<ref>Marvin, Wanda. ”Arrangers Want Some ‘Cake’ Too; ASMA Will Voice Beefs.” Billboard 56:50 (9 December 1944), 14, 22.</ref>
Work married Kathryn Holliday in 1953.<ref>"New York, New York, U.S., Marriage License Indexes, 1907-2018" on Ancestry.com.</ref> Upon his retirement they moved to Tolland, Massachusetts, where he died.<ref name=grove/>
==Partial list of compositions== *Wanderlust (1938)<ref>"Martinelli Sings Eighth 'Otello, Last of Season", ''New York Herald Tribune'' (March 19, 1938), p. 8.</ref> *Myriorama by Night (orchestra, ca. 1946)<ref>"Anderson Booked with Philharmonic." Los Angeles Times, 3 February 1946 (article gives LA Philharmonic premiere of the work as 7 February 1946).</ref> *Portraits from the Bible (1956)<ref name=grove/> *Autumn Walk (wind band, 1957)<ref name=grove/> *Processional Hymn (arrangement of "Gaudeamus Igitur" for chorus with band or piano accompaniment, 1957)<ref name=southern/> *Driftwood Patterns (wind band, 1961)<ref name=grove/><ref>The work is reviewed in Instrumentalist magazine, June 1961, 64 ("New Music").</ref> *Stand the Storm (1963)<ref name=grove/> *Reflections, Poems of Praise<ref name=wyatt/> *Forest Images<ref name=wyatt/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://archives.nypl.org/mus/25793 The CBS Collection of Manuscript Scores] in the Music Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (contains over 270 scores arranged and orchestrated by Julian Work) *[https://www.nypl.org/blog/2021/07/22/invisible-no-more-julian-work Invisible No More: Julian Work] (blog post)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Work, Julian}} Category:1910 births Category:1995 deaths Category:African-American classical composers Category:20th-century American classical composers Category:African-American male classical composers Category:American male classical composers Category:Musicians from Nashville, Tennessee Category:Fisk University alumni Category:CBS people Category:20th-century African-American musicians Category:20th-century American male composers