Soprano JÚLIA COELHO comes from Portugal. She is at the final stages of her DMA in Vocal Performance and Ph.D. in Musicology (AbD) at the University of North Texas, where she studies with mezzo-soprano Jennifer Lane. She obtained master’s degrees in voice and musicology from the University of Missouri (2018, 2017) and the Conservatory of Avellino in Italy (2013), and a BA in Philosophy from the University of Lisbon in Portugal (2010).
Ms. Coelho performs regularly in concerts, recitals, and weekly events, with a focus on Early Music and Luso-Brazilian repertoire. She has several recordings, having participated at several music projects and albums as a soloist, namely: the miniature opera “The Shopping List” and “The Solitude of the Multitudes,” both with music by Marco Nardelli and the latter with her poetry written in 5 languages; album “Vessels: Spellbook in the House of Hearts,” a virtual reality micro-opera written by Chris Poovey (2021); as well “Codex Symphonia” by Kory Reeder. She is releasing in 2024 the album “O Tempo fora do Tempo”, a song cycle for Pierrot ensemble with music by Kory Reeder and poetry by Júlia Coelho, and is also working on another album for solo voice and baroque triple harp with Monika Ruusmaa on 17th-century Venetian repertoire.
Recently, Ms. Coelho has won the first prizes in the 2022 Charleston International Competition – Baroque Music – in the solo and duet categories (the latter singing and performing with two voices and self-accompaniment at the gothic harp and keyboard), and has won the third prize in the Opera category (university division) of the 2021 competition “The American Prize.” She sang at the Baroque Opera Workshop in Queens, NY (Poppea [Poppea, Monteverdi] and at the Amherst Early Music Festival (Orontea [Orontea, Cesti]) under the direction of Julianne Baird, at UNT as Witch I (Dido, by Purcell) and Ninfa (Book VII by Monteverdi), and at MU operas and staged scenes as Suor Genevieffa (Suor Angelica, Puccini), Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare, Händel), Amina (La Sonnambula, Bellini), among other roles.
In addition to her vocal performance activities, Ms. Coelho often plays the Gothic harp and keyboard to accompany her singing, frequently performing her own arrangements and compositions. As a scholar performer, she has peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on 13th-century Galician-Portuguese Cantigas d’amigo of Martin Codax (2022), 17th-century German Musica Poetica (2021), Claudio Monteverdi (2018), Händel’s Messiah (2015), and a book translation on 17th-century theorists Pietro Cerone and Wolfgang Schonsleder (2018). For more info about her scholar-performer work, visit: http://www.xjcoelhox.wixsite.com/juliacoelho
You can find Júlia’s 2022 Baroque Music Competition duet performance here.
You can find Júlia’s 2022 Baroque Music Competition vocal performance here.
You can find Júlia’s 2023 18th Century Music Competition vocal performance here.