The groups participating in the First Section of the International Wind Band Contest «City of Valencia» 2025 will have to perform the score “The Blue Marble” by Julie Giroux as a compulsory piece.
BIOGRAPHY
Julie Ann Giroux was born in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, and Monroe, Louisiana. She received her musical education from Louisiana State University and Boston University. She studied composition with, among others, John Williams, Bill Conti, and Jerry Goldsmith. Julie is an accomplished performer on piano and horn, but her first love is composition. She began playing piano at the age of three and had published her first piece by the age of nine.
In 1985, she began composing, orchestrating, and conducting music for television and films. Within three hours of arriving in Los Angeles, she was working on music for the Emmy Award-winning miniseries “North and South,” followed by work on the television series “Dynasty” and “The Colbys,” as well as several films such as “Karate Kid II.” She received her first Emmy nomination in 1988 for “North and South Part II – Love and War,” and for the next three years was nominated every year for her arrangements and original compositions for the Academy Awards show. To date, Julie has over 100 film and television credits and has been nominated for Emmy Awards multiple times. When she won her first Emmy Award, she was the first woman and the youngest person to win the award in that category. Julie also had the privilege of arranging for Celene Dion, Paula Abdul, Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, Madonna, Reba McIntyre, Little Richard, Billy Crystal, Michael Jackson and many others.
Julie writes works for all types of symphonic and chamber ensembles, beginning to write music for Symphonic Band in 1983 and conducting her music in clinics around the world. Julie is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).
COMPULSORY PIECE: SYMPHONY num.VI «THE BLUE MARBLE»
Symphony in three movements commissioned by the Metropolitan Wind Symphony in 2022.
Movement I. The Blue Marble
It is often said that the first complete image of the Earth, “The Blue Marble,” taken by Apollo 17 in 1972, was the first complete photograph of planet Earth. It is the most reproduced photograph in history. It made it very clear to humanity how small and vulnerable our only home really is.
Movement II. Voices in Green
The rainforest has its own music, sounds that transport you into the heart of the jungle, which feels incredibly alive. Julie composed this second movement “Voices in Green” with the sounds of the Amazon rainforest as the audio background, influencing every note and phrase.
Movement III. Let There Be Life
The miracle of the Earth is life, that fragile, silky thread that holds existence together. As with the famous photograph of the blue marble, I hope this symphony will remind people how fragile and beautiful the Earth is, and fill hearts and minds with a renewed love for our planet, our only home. The Earth is the only thing we all have in common. It does not belong to us. We belong to it. It is our only home, and we must always treat it as such, so that each generation leaves it healthier and happier than it found it.