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 can be heard as Pamina in Mozart's "Magic Flute" at the Oper Leipzig, after having performed there last season as a Flower Girl in Richard Wagner's "Parsifal" and as Friederike in the much-acclaimed world premiere of Gerd Kühr's "Paradiese"

Julia Sophie Wagner feels artistically rooted in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. She is enjoying a long-going and close musical friendship with the Leipzig St Thomas's Boys Choir and the Gewandhaus Orchestra, and will go on tour twice with the Berlin Academy of Ancient Music and the RIAS Chamber Choir in the coming season. She will be recording the Lutheran Masses on CD and DVD together with Rudolf Lutz and the Bach Foundation St Gallen;
In 2021 Julia was appointed to the board of directors of the Neue Bachgesellschaft e.V., invitations have brought her to Bachfest Leipzig and Thüringer Bachwochen, to Oregon Bach Festival, Hong Kong Bachfest and many others, both as a soloist with various ensembles and with her own programmes.

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.

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 regularly gives recitals at the Bach Festival Leipzig, the Tonhalle Zurich, the Gewandhaus Leipzig and in Japan and the USA. She has a close musical friendship with Eric Schneider, which began with their joint CD "Leipziger Schule"; since then, many joint programmes have been created, often combining songs and poetry or other texts. In the field of avant-garde and contemporary music, Julia Sophie Wagner is constantly on the lookout for repertoire expansion together with the Leipzig composer and pianist Steffen Schleiermacher; in 2022 they will record what is already their third joint song CD; together with his "Ensemble Avantgarde", the soprano is regularly on stage and in front of the microphone.

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.