Jules Buckley
Julian "Jules" Buckley is an English conductor, composer, and arranger.
Career
In 2004, Buckley and producer/manager Chris Wheeler co-founded the Heritage Orchestra, with the intention of featuring an orchestra in a music club setting. In 2008, Buckley became principal guest conductor of the Metropole Orkest, a jazz and eclectic music orchestra based in Hilversum, in the Netherlands, and chief conductor from 2013. In 2020, he became Creative Artist-in-Residence with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and stood in as presenter of the BBC Radio 3 programme Classical Fix, in place of Clemency Burton-Hill, who suffered a brain haemorrhage in January 2020.Collaborations
Buckley has worked with the WDR Big Band; José James and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; Patrick Watson and the Orchestre National d'Île de France; and arranged and conducted Caro Emerald's album The Shocking Miss Emerald and Jacob Collier's album Djesse Vol. 1. Other collaborations have included projects with Gregory Porter; Tori Amos; Markus Stockhausen; Emilie-Claire Barlow; Michael Kiwanuka; Louis Cole; Jonathan Jeremiah; Basement Jaxx; Massive Attack; Arctic Monkeys; John Cale; Paul Weller; Emeli Sandé; The Cinematic Orchestra; Jamie Cullum; Cory Wong; Beardyman; Cory Henry; Snarky Puppy; Becca Stevens; Andrea Motis and Dizzee Rascal.Awards
In February 2016, the Snarky Puppy album Sylva, featuring Buckley and the Metropole Orkest, won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. At the end of 2016, Classic House with Pete Tong and the Heritage Orchestra reached No. 1 in the Album Charts. In 2020, the song "All Night Long" by Jacob Collier, featuring Take 6 and the Metropole Orkest, won an award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocal at the 62nd Grammy Awards.In 2018, Buckley and Metropole Orkest were awarded the Bremer Musikfest-Preis in special recognition of their contribution to the success of Musikfest Bremen.
Notable recent performances
- August 2016: BBC Prom 49, with the Metropole Orkest, celebrating the music of Quincy Jones.
- February 2017: National Symphony Orchestra, with Snarky Puppy at the Kennedy Center, Washington DC.
- August 2018: BBC Proms with the Heritage Orchestra for a late-night Prom "New York Now", celebrating the changing soundscape of New York and featuring artists from that city, including Hercules and Love Affair.
- June 2019: "Soundtrack of the 80s with Quincy Jones", with the Metropole Orkest at London's O2 arena.
- August 2019: BBC Prom 45, with the Metropole Orkest in a homage to Nina Simone, with Ledisi and Lisa Fischer.
- September 2019: BBC Prom 64 with the Heritage Orchestra and the Soul Mavericks, featuring Terra & Eddie, Sunni and Lagaet.
- February 2020: Seattle Symphony Orchestra, "The Best of Quincy Jones", at Benaroya Hall, Seattle.
- February 2020: BBC Symphony Orchestra, featuring Lianne La Havas, at the Barbican Centre, London.
- August 2021: BBC Proms, with BBC Symphony Orchestra, featuring Moses Sumney.
- September 2024: BBC Proms, with his orchestra and Florence and The Machine for "Symphony of Lungs"
Personal life