Clifford (the son of Thomas Clifford of
Tonbridge, Kent) was educated at
Ardingly College,
Tonbridge School, the
Leipzig Conservatory (under
Józef Śliwiński and Sir
Walter Parratt) and the
Royal College of Music. After terms as conductor of the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Yorkshire Permanent Orchestra in Leeds, he became musical director to the Corporations of
Harrogate (Yorkshire) and [Hastings] (Sussex). He frequently conducted in London, and was considered a particularly fine conductor of
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's music. Clifford performed his own piano solo compositions,
Three Episodes and
Grand Valse Caprice, in a concert in
Doncaster in 1899. On 17 December 1902, he married (Alice) Margaret Mary Henniker-Major (b. 23 May 1870), daughter of the 5th Baron
Henniker and 2nd
Baron Hartismere (formerly MP for
East Suffolk and
Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man, who died in 1902). Margaret Clifford was an accomplished soprano singer. Their son, Julian Major Herbert Henniker Clifford, was born in 1903 and their daughter, Margaret, in 1912. Clifford, who was considered a musical 'phenomenon', as General Entertainment Manager to the Harrogate Spa took over the Harrogate Orchestra from C.L. Naylor in 1906, with a budget of £3,500 to spend on the orchestra. He built it into a fine ensemble, attracting such artists as
Fritz Kreisler,
Nellie Melba,
Ferruccio Busoni,
Ignacy Paderewski and
Anna Pavlova. The fully professional orchestra moved to
Hastings for the winter seasons, an arrangement which continued until 1930. Clifford was also conductor of the Westminster Orchestral Society in 1906–07. Clifford worked closely with his friend and colleague
Ernest Farrar, a pupil of
Charles Villiers Stanford's. In October 1914, at the first Yorkshire production of the 1913
William Russell film
Tannhauser Clifford and Farrar arranged the accompanying music. In 1904, the Cliffords were assisting
Mrs Patrick Campbell in a concert at the Harrogate Kursaal (Royal Hall). In August 1911 the Harrogate orchestra gave the first provincial performance of Elgar's 2nd Symphony. In July 1913, Clifford conducted
Zygmunt Stojowski in a performance of his 1st Piano concerto. The Orchestra's quality attracted other conductors, notably
Ralph Vaughan Williams, who gave the second performance of his
A London Symphony with them in August 1914. In August 1915, Margaret Clifford gave one of the earliest declamations of
Edward Elgar's
Carillon. A month later was given the first Harrogate performance of
Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony, with the new Harrogate Municipal Choir led by Farrar, and conducted by Clifford, together with his own
Ode to New Year. In October 1916, Clifford conducted the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at the Town Hall, in a programme including Friedemann's
Slavonic Rhapsody and
John Foulds's
Keltic Suite, which were said to have been 'presented with fine precision and due observation of gradation of light and shade.' During 1915, Gerald Finzi moved from London to Harrogate. Julian Clifford recommended to him to study composition with Ernest Farrar, who was a friend of
Frank Bridge,
Clive Carey and Vaughan Williams. It is stated that Finzi and Farrar had a strong mutual respect and that Farrar nurtured his talent. Farrar died in 1918, and at a concert dedicated to his memory, at Harrogate 17 September 1919, Clifford conducted the first performance of his own work, the tone-poem 'Lights Out'. Other compositions include a Piano Concerto in E minor, a Ballade in D for orchestra, a Suite de Concert, and the song-cycle
A Dream of Flowers. Julian Seymour Clifford died in December 1921 aged only 44 and Mrs Clifford died in July 1923. The Harrogate Orchestra then continued its daily concerts and weekly symphony concerts under
Howard Carr (until 1924), and then under
Basil Cameron. ==Julian Clifford junior==