Julia Siciliano

About Julia

Award-winning concert pianist, Julia Siciliano has been heralded as a musician with “fabulous creative power” by the Bonn General-Anzeiger. Siciliano is a well-respected artist on the world stage, being invited as a solo artist by many prestigious orchestras, and festivals, most recently with the Blue Ash-Montgomery Symphony Orchestra. A winner of many local and international piano competitions, she has won top prizes at the Sicily International Piano Competition, Heida Hermanns Competition, Iowa Piano Competition, and MTNA National Competition. A highly active chamber musician, she has been invited to perform on concert series and festivals throughout the world including with soloists of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano. She has given recitals with Metropolitan Opera stars Amanda Pabyan and Eric Owens, and internationally acclaimed violinists Ray Chen and Simone Lamsma.

Her debut solo album "Dream Catchers”, a two disc album featuring small scale works by Beethoven, Schumann, Schubert, Ravel and Debussy, released in 2016 to great acclaim. Fanfare Magazine declared “this release has merit as a career milestone” and leaves “no doubt about the devotion and seriousness of Siciliano’s approach to music.” Gramophone Magazine praised her "fine technique and natural musicality” pinpointing her "masterful delicacy, harmonic motion, and timing" in Debussy’s Images II.

Since opening a private teaching studio in Chicago in 2023, Siciliano has established herself as a respected educator, already earning the Steinway Top Teacher Award in 2024. She has been invited to give masterclasses at the University of Chicago, Eastern Michigan University, and Oakland University, and has been a frequent faculty member at the Interlochen Arts Camp, Reinhardt Piano Festival and Academy, and the Schoolcraft College Summer Piano Camp.

Siciliano holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Nelita True, and the University of Michigan with Logan Skelton.

My philosophy as a teacher and concert pianist is that every note is sacred. Each phrase should be treated with thoughtfulness and intention, and we should always strive to make a beautiful sound.