Biography

Pianist Julio Elizalde was born in the San Francisco Bay Area and received a bachelor’s degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Paul Hersh. He holds master’s and doctoral degrees from the Juilliard School in New York City, where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal, Joseph Kalichstein, and Robert McDonald.

Since 2014, Mr. Elizalde has served as Artistic Director of the Olympic Music Festival in Washington. He is also a founding member of the New Trio with Montreal Symphony Co-Concertmaster Andrew Wan and New York Philharmonic cellist Patrick Jee. The New Trio won first prize at the Fischoff and Coleman national chamber music competitions and was awarded Harvard Musical Association’s Arthur W. Foote Prize. As part of the New Trio, Mr. Elizalde has performed for American political figures such as former President Bill Clinton, former Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Henry Kissinger, and Senator Ted Kennedy.

Mr. Elizalde has toured internationally with violinists Sarah Chang and Ray Chen, and he has performed alongside conductors Itzhak Perlman, Teddy Abrams, and Anne Manson. He has collaborated with artists such as violinist Pamela Frank; composers Osvaldo Golijov and Stephen Hough; baritone William Sharp; and members of the Juilliard, Cleveland, Takács, Kronos, and Brentano string quartets.

In 2012, Mr. Elizalde was the youngest juror ever selected at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition held at the University of Notre Dame. In 2013, he served as a visiting professor of piano at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. He has given piano and chamber music masterclasses throughout the US at major conservatories and universities, and he has also appeared at various summer music festivals including Yellow Barn, Taos, Caramoor, Bowdoin, Kneisel Hall, and the Music Academy of the West. This performance marks his debut under San Francisco Symphony auspices.

(November 2019)