Biography

"As in her recital CD with songs by Charles Ives, the polyglot singer scores not only with her well- focused, clear voice, but also with her wide and expressive vocal palette and the mastery of creative differentiation" ,"Klassik Heute" magazine writes about Julia’s latest CD with songs by Federico Mompou.

Versatility is the hallmark of the soprano's entire career: on the opera stage she was last heard as Pamina in Mozart's "Magic Flute" at the Oper Leipzig, after having performed there as a Flower Girl in Richard Wagner's "Parsifal" and as Friederike in the much-acclaimed world premiere of Gerd Kühr's "Paradiese"

The great choral works of the Classical and Romantic periods are also an integral part of the repertoire - Julia Sophie Wagner's debut at the Kennedy Center Washington, where she sang the soprano part in Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis" for the first time, was voted "Kennedy Center Event of the year" by Washington Life Magazine. Julia Sophie Wagner is a welcome guest with orchestras such as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Washington National Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Chamber Orchestra or the Rundfunkorchester Berlin, RTVE Madrid or RAI Turin.

Julia Sophie Wagner has recently expanded her repertoire to include key works of late Romanticism and early Modernism, further consolidating her vocal development in the great Romantic repertoire: she has enjoyed repeated success with Richard Strauss's "Four Last Songs", performed the soprano part in Mahler's "Una poenitentiam" in his 8th Symphony Symphony – a recording of which was released in 2025 – and was celebrated by the press for her debut in the finale of Strauss's "Salome" for "her unmistakable tone, a voice that strikes a balance between lyrical and dramatic qualities, effortlessly navigating the high tessitura and generating intense emotions and deep feelings."

Julia Sophie Wagner traces her artistic roots back to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. She has enjoyed a close musical friendship with the Leipzig St Thomas Choir and the Gewandhaus Orchestra for many years, and has toured with the Berlin Academy for Early Music and the RIAS Chamber Choir. In 2021, she was appointed to the board of directors of the Neue Bachgesellschaft e.V. She has been a regular guest at the Leipzig Bach Festival and the Thuringian Bach Weeks for many years, both as a soloist with various ensembles and with her own programmes.

Concert tours have brought her all over Europe, to North- and South America as well as to Asia where she performed at renowned venues like the Berlin Philharmonie, Palau de la Musica Barcelona, Kennedy Center Washington and Teatro Colon Buenos Aires. Julia has been a well received guest at international festivals like Maggio Musicale Firenz, Mendelssohn- and Bachfestival Leipzig, Herne Early Music Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, Carinthian Summer, Rheingau Music Festival or Festival de la Chaise Dieu.

She is regularly invited to give recitals at the Bach Festival in Leipzig, as well as at the Tonhalle Zurich, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, and in Japan and the USA. She enjoys a close musical friendship with Eric Schneider, which began with their joint CD "Leipziger Schule"; since then, they have created many joint programmes, often combining songs and poetry or other texts. In the field of avant-garde and contemporary music, Julia Sophie Wagner is constantly seeking to expand her repertoire together with the Leipzig composer and pianist Steffen Schleiermacher. In 2022, they recorded their third joint recital CD, and the soprano regularly performs on stage and in front of the microphone with his "Ensemble Avantgarde".

Another passion of Julia's are self-developed formats of various orientations, such as her children's music theatre "Prinzessin Elise oder: Märchenprinzen singen auch" (Princess Elise or: Fairytale princes sing, too) in collaboration with the Leipzig Gewandhaus and Deutschlandfunk Kultur; most recently the Bach Requiem "ET LUX." with new texts by the lyricist Thomas Kunst, which celebrated its premiere at the Thuringian Bach Festival. (read more in the category "Projects")

Julia studied at the Music Academies Weimar and Leipzig with Venceslava Hruba-Freiberger and Hans-Joachim Beyer as well as at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, with Lucile Evans, and attended masterclasses and coachings with Edith Wiens, Peter Schreier, Ingrid Figur and Graham Johnson. She has won several prizes, among them Mozart Competition Prague, Paula-Salomon-Lindberg Competition for contemporary song and the Lortzing Competition as well as scholarships from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Leipzig Opera.