Austin Wulliman

Violinist Austin Wulliman specializes in contemporary music and has been a member of several leading ensembles in that field, as well as performing and recording as a soloist. He is also a notable educator. Jed Austin Wulliman was born in Goshen, Indiana, on October 29, 1982. As a youth, he was trained at the Goshen College Strings Preparatory Program (now part of the Goshen Community School of the Arts). Wulliman attended the University of Michigan, studying with Aaron Berofsky and graduating in 2006 summa cum laude. He went on to Northwestern University, where he studied with and worked as an assistant to Blair Milton. He earned his master's degree there in 2008. Wulliman also studied at the Lucerne Festival Academy and held the Aspen Festival Fellowship in Contemporary Music; at the latter venue, he took private lessons from Paul Kantor. Moving to Chicago, Wulliman joined Ensemble Dal Niente, as much an artist collective as a performing ensemble. He served as the organization's program director, organizing collaborations with such major figures as composer Brian Ferneyhough and the experimental rock band Deerhoof. That group performed at Chicago's Millennium Park and Harvard University. Wulliman made guest appearances with such major contemporary music groups as Eighth Blackbird, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and the MusicNow Ensemble of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Joining the Spektral Quartet, Wulliman made his recording debut with that group in 2013 on the album Chambers. Wulliman has made various solo appearances. He performed Kaija Saariaho's Violin Concerto ("Graal Theatre") with the Aspen Festival Contemporary Music Ensemble and collaborated with her on the American premiere of her Calices for violin and piano. He recorded Elliott Carter's Duo for violin and piano at the Library of Congress with pianist Conrad Tao. Wulliman is also a composer, and he and Tao performed his duo Insurgente Sur. He has also premiered concertos by Chris Fisher-Lochhead and Kirsten Broberg, and he has collaborated on solo pieces with composers Augusta Read Thomas and Lee Hyla. In 2014, he released the album Diligence Is to Magic as Progress Is to Flight. Wulliman is a member of the JACK Quartet, with which he has toured and recorded extensively. That group served as artists-in-residence at the Mannes School of Music in New York, where Wulliman has also taught. In 2023, he released the album News from Utopia on the Bright Shiny Things label.
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