Daily Inspiration: Meet Julian Nguyen

Today we’d like to introduce you to Julian Nguyen.

Hi Julian, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
We are Julian Nguyen (julz) and Emilio Vazquez (milz), the co-founders of Lunar Calendar. We founded LC as an effort to combine our experience as classically trained musicians and passion for the live concert experience, visual art, and local arts communities. We met at Arizona State University’s School of Music, connecting as friends, colleagues, roommates, and now business partners.

Julz’s Background
I was born in Louisiana and raised in Texas. My family is very musically inclined, so music was always in my life growing up. I started learning violin around age 3, but was always encouraged to appreciate music of all types. I took piano lessons, learned saxophone, drums, guitar, and taught myself how to make music using computers/synthesizers. I’ve always had an interest in and relationship with technology, and developed those skills alongside my musical ones throughout high school, college, and grad school. Since moving to AZ, I’ve immersed myself in the local music scene here in the Phoenix area, studying, gigging, teaching, and collaborating, all while experimenting with combining as many artistic mediums into live performances as possible.

Milz’s Background
I was born and raised in Arizona and had a rather late start with music, starting the violin at age 10. I didn’t realize this until much later in life but what drew me to music was the sense of community you experience on and off the stage. From building lifelong friendships with my stand partners in orchestra to hearing how moved an audience member was by a performance, I realized how powerful music can be in building and fostering a sense of community. This inspired me to pursue work as an educator, sharing my passion for music with students of all ages and experiences, as well as an arts leader, working for and serving on the board of multiple nonprofit organizations around the valley. Access to the arts is something I believe is a basic human right and I try to align as much of my work in service to making art accessible for all communities. When I experienced the work julz was doing as part of his DMA, I knew there was something special to this and an opportunity to share this with work with others.

Since graduating and pursuing our respective careers, we felt like something was missing and weren’t 100% satisfied with the work we were engaging in and the opportunities available to us. When you are freelancing for a living, you rarely have creative control over the projects you work on, plus the classical music world is so rooted in tradition that it tends to be slow to adapt to modern times. We noticed something was missing in the industry and that we had difficulty aligning our authentic selves with the work, so we took this as an opportunity to create something new, for ourselves and our community.

Last summer, we sat down and asked ourselves the following question: what would we create if we had unlimited resources? This is how our vision for Lunar Calendar began. It started with lots of dreaming, brainstorming, what-ifs, late night planning meetings, and the next thing we knew we were getting ready to launch 7 months later.

We launched Lunar Calendar to not only create the opportunities we were craving as artists but also to enrich our local communities of artists and audiences. With the help of the LC team (Izayah Dutcher & Nikhita Sheller), as well as our generous community of supporters, we’ve been able to launch our skordatura series, pursue collaborations with arts organizations like Squidsoup and SMoCA, launch our Community Art Fund, as well as a few other exciting projects we are announcing soon!

Next up is our show max/min on September 27, at Central Arts Market in downtown Phoenix with shows at 6:30pm and 8:30pm. Grab a ticket and see what the Lunar Calendar experience is all about!

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There have definitely been many ups and downs like any startup, but one thing that has taken some time for us is finding a good balance. Everyone on the team is making LC happen on top of other jobs, projects, and commitments so it’s required a lot of flexibility, creative problem solving, and resourcefulness to bring Lunar Calendar to life. We’ve been privileged to be able to rely on the generous support of our community of friends, families, and colleagues. Projects like this require a lot of commitment and sacrifice from the team but none of this would be possible if our community wasn’t willing to listen and share our story. It’s a great reminder of the power of community, especially in a digital world where it is so easy to get lost in the noise and feel disconnected from others.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Lunar Calendar is a collective of artists passionate about creating concert experiences where music is seen, heard, and felt. Our shows fuse classical chamber music with contemporary sound and visual design, offering a new kind of listening experience that is multi-sensory, immersive, and alive. Our vision is to enrich the lives of artists and audiences alike by creating accessible opportunities to create and experience. We are by artists, for artists.

We specialize in curated concert experiences that blend live chamber music, visuals, dynamic lighting, unconventional programming, and world class musicianship that are accessible to the local communities we operate in.

We are proud of the fact that we took our vision to create something special and actually set out to do it. Every show and engagement we’ve produced so far, from our launch party and inaugural show fresh squeezed, to our collaboration with Squidsoup and SMoCA, has been a result of our commitment and passion for that vision. It hasn’t been easy, but we’ve been able to accomplish our initial goals while staying true to our values and authentic selves.

What sets us apart from others is that we aren’t doing this just for recognition or clout. We want to create something that will outlive us both and have a positive impact in the world. Our shows are thoughtful and highly curated with every detail of the artist and audience experience considered. We care deeply about our work and want to create memorable concert experiences for our artists and audiences alike.

Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
In a way we’re kind of desensitized to risk since live performance is inherently risky, and we do it all the time. You’re required to trust that everyone will do their job, play their notes right, and all the tech will work. Chamber music especially is like doing a bunch of repeated trust falls in front of an audience. Of course, we practice a lot, so it becomes a very calculated risk. But it’s also about balancing the risk. It’s kind of funny how we work really hard to minimize risk in some areas but purposefully decide not to in others, like making sure we have backup plans for any tech malfunctions, but still using acoustic instruments that take a lot more work to play together and in tune. In some ways the risk adds a lot to the reward: when things do go right, it’s just payoff after payoff. Fortunately, our experience as performers has taught us which risks are worth taking. The payoff of creating an unforgettable experience shared among an audience and the confidence and trust in the LC team make the risk of launching in today’s world completely worth it.

Contact Info:

• Website: lunarcalendar.online
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lunarcalendaronline/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Lunar-Calendar/61570347823245/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@lunarcalendaronline

Image Credits
Nathan Noyes Nikhita Sheller