SAN ANGELO, Texas — Angelo State University will present Julie Giroux, an Emmy Award-winning composer and orchestrator, as the featured speaker for the 2022 E. James Holland University Symposium Friday, March 25.
Giroux will deliver two presentations during the symposium and both are free and open to the public.
- 2 p.m. - Keynote address: "American Music from Stage to Screen" in the C.J. Davidson Conference Center inside the Houston Harte University Center, 1910 Rosemont Drive
- 7 p.m. - Q&A discussion in the University Auditorium inside the Mayer Administration Building, 2601 W. Avenue N
The Q&A session will be moderated by Dr. Jonathan Alvis, ASU director of bands.
During her presentations, Giroux will engage the audiences with the process of making music, while celebrating the central role music plays in American culture. She will also discuss how to succeed as a woman in a traditionally male-dominated field.
A Massachusetts native, Giroux has been composing, orchestrating and conducting music for television, films and video games since 1985. She has more than 100 TV and film credits, including TV shows "North and South," "Dynasty," "Broadcast News" and "The Colbys," and the movies "Karate Kid Part II," "Masters of the Universe," "White Men Can't Jump" and "Blaze."
She has won three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Direction, and was the first woman and youngest person to win an Emmy in that category in 1992.
Giroux has also collaborated with dozens of film composers, producers and celebrities including Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Paul Newman, Madonna, Liza Minnelli, Celine Dion, Michael Jackson, Paula Abdul and Harry Connick Jr. Projects she has worked on have also been nominated for Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe awards.
In addition to her commercial work, Giroux has composed and arranged more than 120 symphonies and classical pieces for orchestra, concert band and wind ensemble. She made history in January 2021, as the first woman composer to have her work played during a U.S. Presidential Inauguration Ceremony when "Integrity March" from her Symphony No. 3 "No Finer Calling" was performed by the President's Band. Her music has also been recorded internationally and performed at major music festivals worldwide.
A member of ASCAP, The Film Musicians Fund and the Kappa Kappa Psi national band fraternity, Giroux is a recipient of the Distinguished Service to Music Medal and was the first woman composer inducted into the American Bandmasters Association in 2009.
The Holland Symposium was established in 1984 by then-College of Liberal and Fine Arts Dean E. James Holland. When Holland retired in 2003, the board of regents named the symposium in his honor. In its 38 years, the symposium has brought more than 70 nationally prominent figures to the ASU campus to spur thought and debate on issues relevant to American society. The ASU Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs sponsors the symposium.
