April. 2023       Musical America

New Artist of the Month Profile: ~Nois [headline]

Feb. 2023         Musical America

New Music in the West Loop: Saxes and Trumpets Onstage [headline]

“Julian Velasco, a daring, athletic player” – Hannah Edgar

Aug. 2023        Chicago Classical Review

Grant Park Orchestra… a delightfully devilish finale [headline]

“Kalmar led an incisive and idiomatic performance of Rachmaninoff’s Swansong. The lean lyricism of the secondary theme… [was] nicely enhanced by Julian Velasco’s sinuous saxophone.” – Lawrence Johnson

Dec. 2022        Third Coast Review

Chicago’s Cedille Records Keeps Putting Out Great Stuff [headline]

“[Julian Velasco] and pianist Winston Choi created a delightful set of recordings by contemporary composers that take the listener in all sorts of different directions.… Fabulous.” – Louis Harris

Oct. 2022         Gramophone

Review: Julian Velasco: “As We Are” [headline]

“Cedille celebrates its 30th anniversary with a cool recital by saxophonist Julian Velasco, winner of the Chicago-based label’s first Emerging Artist Competition”

“Gorgeous… raucous… lovely…. What a way for a young saxophonist to break into the big time.” – Laurence Vittes

Sep. 2022         Chicago Tribune

A Phenomenal Sax Soloist… at Chicago Sinfonietta’s Season Opener

“As We Are” is a bird’s-eye view of Velasco’s range, both as an infectiously joyous interpreter of new music and a monster improviser.”

“The young soloist played his saxophone like a one-pipe organ, conjuring distinct timbres on a dime — burly passages evaporated into wispy harmonics and arpeggios flowed with the liquid ease of a bowed instrument. Stylistic pirouettes seemed just as effortless.”– Hannah Edgar

Sep. 2022         Chicago Classical Review

Sinfonietta Opens with the Joy of Sax [headline]

“The Puerto Rican composer provided a fitting showcase for Julian Velasco…a piece that freely mixes jazz and classical idioms with improvised and notated music… Velasco demonstrated impressive agility, dynamic control, and stylistic sensitivity… his crystalline high notes and long arching phrases showcasing his technical range. Velasco played the rapid flights with pinpoint accuracy… Velasco also revealed a penchant for performance in the final improvised cadenza.” – Katherine Buzzard

Oct. 2021         Chicago Tribune

So that was an Unforgettable Ear Taxi [headline]

“Annika Socolofsky’s “I Tell You Me” (in its world-premiere performance by ~Nois saxophone quartet and Socolofsky herself) as among the most captivating compositions I heard the whole [Ear Taxi] festival.” – Hannah Edgar

Aug. 2021        New York Times

As Bang On a Can Returns, a New Generation Rises [headline]

“In addition to the starry headliners, there were also students from the Bang on a Can summer institute, who were given moments to shine…The saxophonist Julian Velasco, for example, excelled as part of a mixed professional and student ensemble in Julius Eastman’s “Femenine” on Friday, and as part of a duo playing Shelley Washington’s “BIG Talk” on Saturday.” – Seth Colter Walls