Grabarek, Julian

Pianist/Coach

Pianist Julian Grabarek is a first-year Adler Fellow and recent graduate of the Collaborative piano program at the University of Michigan. This year’s San Francisco Opera assignments include joining the music staff for The Magic Flute, Carmen, and Bohème Out of the Box. He was an apprentice vocal coach and pianist in the 2023 Merola Opera Program where he worked on Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia and Act II from Verdi’s Otello and appeared in the Metamorphosis recital. This fall he was a guest coach and chorus master at the University of Houston for a double bill of Offenbach’s Monsieur Choufleuri and Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges. This past year he coached Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen at the University of Michigan.

As a recitalist, Grabarek is equally at home with vocalists and instrumentalists. He enjoys performing a wide range of music, from Schubert lieder to Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. In October 2023, he performed works by Poulenc, Britten, Butterworth, and more in recital with fellow Michigan alum and Adler Fellow baritone Samuel Kidd in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In previous seasons, Grabarek was an instrumental collaborative pianist at the Aspen Summer Music Festival and performed in a cello recital at the Bellingham Music Festival.

Before his graduate studies, Grabarek achieved a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Oberlin College and Conservatory.