Julian Lage is an American jazz guitarist

Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

 and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

.

A former child prodigy

Child prodigy

A child prodigy is someone who, at an early age, masters one or more skills far beyond his or her level of maturity. One criterion for classifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 18 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding...

, Lage began performing in public at the age of six. His talent led him to be the subject of the 1997 Academy Award nominated documentary Jules at Eight. At age 13 Lage performed at the 2000 Grammy Awards. Classically trained at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

San Francisco Conservatory of Music, formerly the California Conservatory of Music, founded in 1917, is a music school, with an enrollment of about 400 students. It was launched by Ada Clement and Lillian Hodgehead in the remodeled home of Lillian's parents on Sacramento Street. It was called the...

, he has studied at Sonoma State University

Sonoma State University

Sonoma State University is a public, coeducational business and liberal arts college affiliated with the California State University system. The main campus is located in Rohnert Park, California, United States and lies approximately south of Santa Rosa and north of San Francisco...

, Ali Akbar College of Music

Ali Akbar College of Music

The Ali Akbar College of Music is the name of three schools founded by Indian musician Ali Akbar Khan to teach Indian classical music. The first was founded in 1956 in Calcutta, India. The second was founded in 1967 in Berkeley, California, but moved to its current location in San Rafael,...

, and is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...

. Lage has been a faculty member at the Stanford Jazz Workshop

Stanford Jazz Workshop

Stanford Jazz Workshop was founded in 1972 by saxophonist and educator Jim Nadel to create an environment conducive to learning, experiencing and appreciating jazz...

 at Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 since age 15.

Lage has played with such renowned artists as Gary Burton

Gary Burton

Gary Burton is an American jazz vibraphonist.A true original on the vibraphone, Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the usual two-mallets. This approach caused Burton to be heralded as an innovator and his sound and technique are widely imitated...

, Taylor Eigsti

Taylor Eigsti

Taylor Eigsti is an American jazz pianist and composer.A former child prodigy, Eigsti started studying piano at age four. He recorded his first album at age 14...

, Eric Harland

Eric Harland

Eric Harland is an American jazz drummer.Besides leading his own group Harland has performed with many renowned artists, including Wynton Marsalis, McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson, Joshua Redman, Ravi Coltrane, Kenny Garrett, Dave Holland, Charles Lloyd, Michael Brecker, Terence Blanchard, Walter Smith...

, Mark O'Connor

Mark O'Connor

Mark O'Connor is an American bluegrass, jazz, country and classical violinist fiddler, composer and music teacher. O'Connor's music is wide-ranging, critically acclaimed, and he has received numerous awards for both his playing and his composition...

, Chris Potter

Chris Potter

Christopher or Chris Potter may refer to:*Chris Potter *Christopher Potter *Chris Potter *Chris Potter *Christopher Potter, English academic and clergyman*Chris Potter , Dean of St Asaph...

, Fred Hersch

Fred Hersch

Fred Hersch is a contemporary American jazz pianist who has become a consistent and highly demanded performer on the international jazz scene....

, Joshua Redman

Joshua Redman

Joshua Redman is an American jazz saxophonist and composer who records for Nonesuch Records. He won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition in 1991.-Biography:...

, Pat Metheny

Pat Metheny

Patrick Bruce "Pat" Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.One of the most successful and critically acclaimed jazz musicians to come to prominence in the 1970s and '80s, he is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects...

, Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock

Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

, Christian McBride

Christian McBride

Christian McBride is an American jazz bassist. His father, Lee Smith, and his great uncle, Howard Cooper, are well known Philadelphia bassists who served as McBride's early mentors...

, Gretchen Parlato

Gretchen Parlato

Gretchen Parlato is an American jazz singer. She has performed and recorded with musicians such as Lionel Loueke, Wayne Shorter and Kenny Barron....

, Béla Fleck

Béla Fleck

Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.-Early life and career details:Fleck was born in...

, Antonio Sanchez, Kenny Werner

Kenny Werner

Kenny Werner is an American jazz pianist.-Biography:Kenny Werner is a world-class pianist and composer. His prolific output of compositions, recordings and publications continue to impact audiences around the world....

, Toots Thielemans

Toots Thielemans

Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans , known as Toots Thielemans, is a Belgian jazz musician well known for his guitar and harmonica playing as well as his whistling. Thielemans is credited as one of the greatest harmonica players of the 20th century...

, Martin Taylor, and David Grisman

David Grisman

David Grisman is an American bluegrass/newgrass mandolinist and composer of acoustic music. In the early 1990s, he started the Acoustic Disc record label in an effort to preserve and spread acoustic or instrumental music.-Biography:Grisman grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey...

, among others.

Lage has also appeared at numerous jazz concerts/festivals including: the Monterey Jazz Festival

Monterey Jazz Festival

The Monterey Jazz Festival is one of the longest consecutively running jazz festivals. It debuted on October 3, 1958 and was founded by San Francisco jazz radio broadcaster Jimmy Lyons.-History:...

, the London Jazz Festival

London Jazz Festival

The London Jazz Festival is a London-wide music festival held every November. It takes place in a variety of London venues, including larger concert halls—such as the Barbican and the Royal Festival Hall—and smaller jazz clubs, such as Ronnie Scott's and Vortex...

, the Umbria Jazz Festival

Umbria Jazz Festival

The Umbria Jazz Festival is one of the most important jazz festivals in the world and has been held annually since 1973, usually in the month of July, in Perugia, Italy...

, the Tanglewood Jazz Festival

Tanglewood Jazz Festival

The Tanglewood Jazz Festival, is a summer music festival, featuring contemporary jazz artists. It is held every year on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of Labor Day weekend, in Lenox, Massachusetts...

, the Newport Jazz Festival

Newport Jazz Festival

The Newport Jazz Festival is a music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island, USA. It was established in 1954 by socialite Elaine Lorillard, who, together with husband Louis Lorillard, financed the festival for many years. The couple hired jazz impresario George Wein to organize the...

, the North Sea Jazz Festival

North Sea Jazz Festival

The North Sea Jazz Festival is an annual jazz festival held each second weekend of July in the Netherlands at the Ahoy venue. It used to be in The Hague but since 2006 it has been held in Rotterdam...

, the Montreux Jazz Festival

Montreux Jazz Festival

The Montreux Jazz Festival is the best-known music festival in Switzerland and one of the most prestigious in Europe; it is held annually in early July in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva...

, and the San Francisco Jazz Festival

San Francisco Jazz Festival

Debuting in 1983, the San Francisco Jazz Festival is an annual three-week celebration of today's best music, with over 30 concerts. Produced by SFJAZZ, a non-profit organization dedicated to jazz and jazz education...

.

On March 24, 2009 Lage released his debut album Sounding Point

Sounding Point

Sounding Point is the debut album by jazz guitarist Julian Lage. It was released in March 2009 on EmArcy Records. It premiered at number 13 on the Billboard Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart and was nominated for the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album...

on EmArcy Records

EmArcy Records

EmArcy Records is a jazz record label founded in 1954 by Mercury Records, and today a European jazz label owned by Universal Music Group. The name is a phonetic spelling of "MRC", the initials for Mercury Record Company....

, to favorable reviews. It was nominated for the 2010 Grammy Award

Grammy Award

A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

 "Best Contemporary Jazz Album."

Lage's second album, titled Gladwell was released April 26, 2011, to positive reviews.

A former resident of Boston, Lage moved to New York City in October 2010.

Lage primarily plays a Linda Manzer

Linda Manzer

Linda Manzer is a Canadian master luthier renowned for her archtop, flat-top and harp acoustic guitars.She received her training from Jean Larrivée between 1974 and 1978 and later studied with the late Jimmy D'Aquisto in New York....

 Blue Note Archtop, which he has owned since he was 11. He also plays a 1932 Gibson

Gibson

Gibson may refer to:* Gibson Amphitheatre* Gibson Appliance* Gibson Girl* Gibson Guitar Corporation* Gibson * Gibson Generating Station-Places:In the United States:* Gibson, Arkansas* Gibson, Georgia* Gibson, Iowa* Gibson, Louisiana...

L-5.

As Sideman

• Dawg Duos (1999)
• Generations (2004)
• Next Generations (2005)
• Lucky To Be Me (2006)
• Let It Come To You (2008)
• Daylight At Midnight (2010)
• Voyager: Live By Night (2010)
• Common Ground (2011)
• Seasons: Live At The Metropolitan Museum Of Art (2011)

External links

• Julian Lage