Julia Kierstine
Soprano
New England Third Place Winner 1986

Soprano Julia Kierstine has an eclectic musical background which includes opera, concert, and recital repertoire as well as contemporary music. This many-faceted soprano received rave reviews in the fall of 2002 as a "sizzling Tosca…(who) clearly understands the verismo vocal tradition and has the technique to carry it off with aplomb." (Palo Alto Weekly, 18 Oct. 2002). Having previously appeared with Chattanooga Opera as Violetta in La Traviata, she was invited back to sing Mimi in La Boheme, a signature role which she has performed with Tacoma Opera and Opera San Jose. She will sing the role of Minnie in La Fanciulla del West with the Mendocino Music Festival in July of 2003. The 2003/2004 season marks a return to Chattanooga Opera for Leonora in Fidelio, and an appearance as Guest Soloist with the Bozeman Symphony in the Verdi Requiem.

Included in Ms. Kierstine's opera repertoire are Fiordigli in Cosi fan tutti (Santa Barbara Grand Opera and Buffalo Philharmonic with Maestro Maximiano Valdes); Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (Westfield Symphony, Mendocino Music Festival, Opera San Jose); Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus (Eugene Opera); Nedda in Pagliacci (West Bay Opera, Opera Delaware); the title role in Madama Butterfly (Pacific Repertory Opera); Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera (Opera San Jose); and Leonora in Il Trovatore (West Bay Opera.)

Ms. Kierstine has appeared as Guest Soloist with the South Bend Symphony and the Orquesta Filarmonica de Lima in concerts celebrating the life and works of Verdi. In other concert repertoire, she has been heard as Soloist in the Brahms Requiem, Handel's Messiah, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, and Mozart's Great Mass in C, with the Colorado, San Jose, and Richmond Symphonies, the Buffalo Philharmonic, Albany Pro-Musica, and the Winter Park Bach Festival.

Performances highlighting Ms. Kierstine's role as an advocate of contemporary music include numerous appearances with Edwin London and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony in the acclaimed cycle Canti Lunatici by Bernard Rands, the Pulitzer Prize- winning composer. As Guest Artist, she has performed this and other works by contemporary composers at the Buffalo, Grand Teton, and Aspen Music Festivals.

Julia Kierstine is a past National Finalist of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions and a three-time winner of Metropolitan Opera Study Grants. She was a First-Place Winner of the Center for Contemporary Opera International Vocal Competition and under their auspices made her New York Recital debut in 1995 at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall.

To read more about Julia Kierstine, click here for her agent, Thea Dispeker, Inc.

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