SCHWARTZ, Julia

  Julia Schwartz was born in 1963 in Columbus, Ohio in the United States. From her earliest childhood until her teens she played the violin and piano. At age 14 she discovered a love for singing, and in 1985 graduated from Oberlin College Conservatory with a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance. She continued her voice and music theory studies privately in Munich and at the Konservatorium und Musikhochschule in Zurich.

In 1991 Julia composed her first song cycle. Compositions for choir, various chamber combinations and more works for the voice soon followed. Her instrumental and vocal compositions have been performed in Switzerland, Germany, Poland and the USA.

Julia’s work for the theater includes devising musical concepts and realizing electronic collages for experimental pieces. In 2019 she produced, composed and conducted her first work of verbatim theater with music, Freedom Papers. Julia completed two Certificates of Advanced Studies in Choral Conducting between 2014 and 2016 and several CAS in Orchestral Conducting between 2016 and 2021, both at the Zurich University of the Arts. She is director of the Neuwerkchor in Konstanz, Germany and Ars Vocalis Winterthur in Switzerland.

As a classically trained soprano, Julia now mainly performs chanson evenings. She teaches voice privately and gives presentation and speech workshops. She lives in Frauenfeld, Switzerland.