Kellogg Community College will present a pair of internationally renowned musicians for an afternoon Guest Artist Recital on campus in Battle Creek the first week of March.
The recital, part of KCC’s ongoing Guest Artist Recital Series, will feature violist and composer Jay Julio, who is Assistant Principal Violist in the Opera Philadelphia Orchestra, and pianist and conductor Josh Tatsuo Cullen.
The event, which is free and open to the public, will begin at noon Tuesday, March 3, in the auditorium of the Davidson Visual and Performing Arts Center, on campus at 450 North Ave. in Battle Creek.
The recital program will include:
- The world premiere of the viola version of “Island Baby Reflections” by Courtney Bryan
- The regional premiere of Julio’s arrangement of “Kundiman” by Nicanor Santa Ana Abelardo
- The regional premiere of “Sonata for Viola and Piano” by James Lee III
- “Morpheus” by Rebecca Helferich Clarke
- “Le Grand Tango” by Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla
For more information about the upcoming Guest Artist Recital or additional music events and initiatives at KCC, contact KCC’s Arts and Communication offices at 269-965-4126.
For more information about upcoming events at KCC, musical and otherwise, check out KCC’s online events calendar at kellogg.edu/events.
About the Artist: Violist and Composer Jay Julio
From Uniondale, New York, first-generation Filipino-American violist and composer Jay Julio (b. 1997) divides their time between New York City, Philadelphia and touring internationally. They serve as Assistant Principal Violist of the Opera Philadelphia Orchestra and have performed with the American Composers Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony, and the “Hamilton” Angelica Tour for over a year.
As a soloist, Julio has appeared with the Ocala Symphony, Marquette Symphony and Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Their recordings include releases on Parma, Nonesuch and Broadway Records, notably pianist-composer Timo Andres’ 2025 Grammy-nominated album “The Blind Banister.” Julio’s work has been featured on radio and television across the United States, Australia and Europe, both as a musician and as an advocate for equity in the arts.
In 2025, Julio received an Interdisciplinary New York State Council for the Arts grant and a YoungArts Alumni Microgrant to support their multimedia project “america is in the heart.” In 2026, they will serve as a Tell Your Story Fellow at the Spoleto Music Festival, collaborating with members of the Charleston, South Carolina, community to create new interdisciplinary work rooted in local experiences.
An award-winner in competitions sponsored by the Music Teachers National Association, National Federation of Music Clubs and the YoungArts Foundation, Julio has also received support from the Virtu Foundation and the American Viola Society through instrument and bow loans. They are alumni of the Music Academy of the West, New York String Orchestra Seminar and Yellow Barn Young Artists Program, with additional festival appearances at Aspen, Pacific, Spoleto and Cabrillo.
As an educator, Julio has served as a Teaching Fellow with the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, as faculty at the Stony Brook University Chamber Strings Camp and as substitute faculty at the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division. They have also been invited to serve on grant panels for the New York State Council for the Arts, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the MAP Fund.
Julio earned a Bachelor of Music from the Manhattan School of Music, and a Master of Music from the Juilliard School as a full-tuition Susan W. Rose Fellow. Their teachers include Karen Ritscher, Heidi Castleman, Misha Amory and Matthew Lipman.
Additional mentors include Leilehua Lanzilotti, Todd Low and Saskia Hamilton. Outside of music, Julio is an award-winning poet, with work published in the Cincinnati Review, the Mississippi Review and other journals.
About the Artist: Pianist and Conductor Josh Tatsuo Cullen
Born in Hawaii and raised outside Detroit, Japanese-American pianist and conductor Josh Tatsuo Cullen is praised for his “astounding mixture of coolness and intensity” (Stuttgart Zeitung) and for his “delicious” collaborations (the New York Times).
Cullen’s professional career began at age 9 when he performed and recorded Mozart’s “Piano Concerto in A major, K. 488” with the Moscow Philharmonic. He has since appeared as soloist with the Detroit Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Fort Worth Symphony, Ann Arbor Symphony and Otsu Philharmonic Orchestra.
As a collaborative pianist, Cullen toured Taiwan in 2025 with violinist Sheng-Ching Hsu, performing and recording the world premiere of Apple Chang’s “Danse de Ballet en Solo” at the National Performing Arts Center in Taipei and the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts at Weiwuying.
His commitment to underrepresented composers led to the album “Scenes in Tin Can Alley: Piano Music of Florence Price,” which introduced the first commercial recordings of many of Price’s newly rediscovered piano works. Gramophone praised the recording as “absolutely lovely,” noting its “flair, finesse and conviction.” Selections from the album are frequently broadcast nationwide, including on Performance Today.
Cullen has also recorded the world premiere of “Recuerdos Diaspóricos” by James Lee III, Beethoven’s “Piano Concertos Nos. 1-3” and Mozart’s “Concerto for Two Pianos” with his mentor Paul Badura-Skoda and the Czech National Symphony.
Equally active in musical theatre, Cullen has served as music associate on “Hamilton” (Angelica Tour) and associate conductor on “Frozen” (First National Tour) and “Beauty and the Beast” (30th Anniversary Tour). He has also worked as a vocal coach for New York University summer music theatre programs.
Cullen holds master’s degrees in solo piano from the Juilliard School and collaborative piano from New York University, and earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan at age 16. His principal teachers include Jerome Lowenthal, Arthur Greene and Grant Wenaus.
A proud U.S. Army veteran, Cullen spent a decade training host-nation forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Philippines. His YouTube channel, @armypianist, features original solo piano arrangements of video game music.
For more news about Kellogg Community College, view our latest press releases online at https://daily.kellogg.edu/category/news-releases.
