Julian Baker
Adjudicator: Brass

After two years of study at the Royal College of Music with Douglas Moore, Julian Baker was appointed, at the age of twenty, co-principal horn with the Hallé orchestra under Sir John Barbirolli, and then six months later succeeded Ifor James as principal horn. After seven years in Manchester, he joined the BBC Symphony Orchestra, playing alongside the late Alan Civil. From 1977 to 1996 he was co-principal in the orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Julian brings to his professorship at the Royal College of Music an extensive experience of all orchestral and operatic repertoire as well as of contemporary music. He succeeded Alan Civil as a professor at the RCM in 1974. Since then he has given classes in the UK, Japan and the USA. His ex-students hold orchestral positions all over Great Britain as well as in Sweden, Spain, Japan, Switzerland and Vienna. Julian is currently writing a book on horn playing technique.