Julian Bryson, Ph.D., believes that music provides a unique opportunity to practice living without the risk of dying. It teaches people to be comfortable with ambiguity, make meaning from abstract clues, and overcome immense challenges. When (not if) musicians make mistakes, they learn and improve, and thankfully, nobody dies. This frees them to take big swings, sing to the rafters, and enjoy the practice of creation. If musicians do their job well, they change lives and become better humans in the process. Few experiences offer a better risk-to-reward ratio.
This is the philosophy he brings to both rehearsals and classrooms. As a choir director, he thrives on curiosity, asking students to synthesize everything they know about music—history, theory, technique, and more—with their life experiences and studies in other fields. Life is infinitely complex, and he believes art should be likewise.
As the Director of Choral Activities at Radford University, he directs the University Chorus and Radford Singers, teaches courses in conducting, vocal music education, and music theory, and facilitates the student-led, new-music choral collective, the Highland Harmonics. An active speaker and field leader, he has presented on at conferences for the National Collegiate Choral Organization, Florida Music Educators Association, and Florida Alliance for Arts Education, sharing research on shaping timbre through technology, using the avant garde to inspire empathy, and adapting an instrumental background to the choir rehearsal room. He also moderates the 28,000-member Facebook community "I'm a Choir Director."
Prior to his appointment at Radford, Bryson served as Director of Choral Activities at Jacksonville University. Throughout his career, he has written music for choirs around the world and led ensembles ranging from fourth graders to senior citizens across musical theatre, opera, symphonic, professional, school, community, and church settings. In June 2026, he completed a residency with the Singing Cluster Polyphonic Choir of Catanzaro, Italy, where they gave the European premiere of his work Fire Flowers. He has earned second place for The American Prize Dale Warland Award in Choral Conducting (2023) alongside grants, awards, and commissions from the American Choral Directors’ Association, Yale Glee Club, Florida Vocal Association All-State Choirs, City of Jacksonville, and the Jacksonville Children’s Chorus, but his most cherished experiences have been with collaborative ensembles that engage in democratic music-making based on the model of New York's C4. These include Triad in Boston, Infinitus and Fathom in Jacksonville, and now Radford's own Highland Harmonics.”