The German-Russian clarinettist Julia Drukh (Yulia Drukh) originally comes from St. Petersburg, where she received her first clarinet lessons at the M. Rostropovich Music School (class of G.V. Shvetsov). She also completed her music studies there, first with Alexey Tikhonov at the Mussorgsky Music College, then at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory with Prof Andrey Kazakov. During the studies she collected experience qua solo and chamber musician, where she performed by the festivals of the St.Petersburger House of Music Young artists of Russia and River of talents.

Later she took part in various international festivals as a solo and chamber musician, such as the Festival of Contemporary Music St. Petersburg Music Spring (Russia/2016), the Grötzinger Musiktagen (Germany/2019), the Höri-Musiktagen (Germany/2023 ), at the Chamber Music Festival in Plovdiv (Bulgaria/2017) and at the Impulse-Festival of contemporary music in Graz (Austria/2023). As an orchestral musician, she took part in the Osterfestival in Bayreuth (Germany/2015), the Donaueschinger Musiktage (Germany/2019) and the Salzburger Festspiele (Austria/2021).

Since 2011 she continued her academic studies in the Highschool of music in Karlsruhe (Germany) by Prof. Wolfgang Meyer, where she successful finished her studies in 2013 with a Masterdiploma. Since 2015 she has been continuing her postgraduate studies at the University of music and performing arts in Stuttgart by Prof. Norbert Kaiser, which she completed with distinction in 2021 (first Master of new music, then concert exam/soloist class). There she also studied saxophone as a minor by Ekkehard Rössle.

During her studies, first in Russia and then in Germany, she continued to take part in various master classes, such as with Professors H. Swimberghe, H.D. Klaus, R.Manno, S.Meyer, R.Wehle, C.Neidich, S.Kam, L.Ruiz-Ferreras and etc. She also became a scholarship holder of the St.Petersburg’s federal state house of music, the Live-Musik-Now Karlsruhe, the Gesellschaft der Freunde Stuttgart, the Lions Club Ettlingen.

Since 2015, Julia Drukh has performed as an orchestra musician with various german orchestras, including the Young Tonkünstler Orchestra Bayreuth, the Karlsruher Baroque Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe, the Badische Philharmonie Pforzheim, the Philharmonie Reutlingen, the Nationaltheater Mannheim, the Heilbronn Chamber Orchestra and the Bochum Symphony Orchestra. Among other things, she was an intern with the SWR- Symphony Orchestra (2019/2020), had a temporary contract as deputy principal clarinetist with the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra (2020/2021), worked as principal clarinetist in the Osnabrück Symphony Orchestra (2021/2022) and as bass clarinetist with the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra (2022/2023). In addition, she was involved in several projects of the renowned NDR, WDR and SWR radio symphony orchestras. In the 2023/2024 season she was with the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen (deputy principal clarinet) and since October 2024 she has been employed as principal clarinetist with the Clara Schumann Philharmonic Orchestra Theater Plauen-Zwickau.

Julia Drukh has won prizes at international competitions, such as the 1st International clarinet competition (1st prize, Petrozavodsk / Russia 2006), the 22nd International Brahms-competition (special prize from the Juri in the chamber music category – Pörtschach / Austria 2015), the international competition for the interpretation of contemporary music ZeitGenuss (Karlsruhe / Germany 2015), the International chamber music competition in Plovdiv (Special Prize, Plovdiv / Bulgaria 2017), the European chamber music competition (Special Prize, Karlsruhe / Germany 2017), the 14th International clarinet competition Saverio Mercadante (3rd prize, Bari / Italy 2018), the international Orchestra auditions awards (3rd prize, 2020 / online competition of Samnium University of music), the 3rd Vienna music competition (1st prize in the category First great awards, 2021 / online competition Vienna), the Anton Rubinstein-competition (3rd prize/ Düsseldorf 2021) and the 7th Rising stars competition (2022/ Berlin). She is also a finalist and scholarship holder of the German music competition (with Trio Y / Freiburg 2021) and was awarded the DAAD-Prize 2020 for foreign students (Stuttgart 2020).

Also she performs extensive chamber music concerts, including as a member of the Zeitlose Musik Ensemble, the Duo YuNiKa, the Trio Y and the Fin de Siècle Ensemble. She also occasionally took part in some projects of the well-known ensemble for new music Klangforum Wien (2021-2023).

In addition, she was actively involved in the founding, organization and implementation of the Festival Zeitlose Musik (2015-2020) , had a teaching position at the HMDK Stuttgart in the subject Praxis Neue Musik (2021-2022) and publishes notes of her arrangements for clarinet by the german publisher CEFES C. F. Schmidt Musikverlag (since 2021). Among other things, she released her first solo-album “Poesie der Luft” by the music label GENUIN (2023), which was awarded a Grand Prix as best CD performer at the “Music & stars awards’24” competition in 2024.

Julia Drukh is one of the clarinetists who plays both clarinet systems – French and German – at the same high level.