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The German soprano, Sophie Julia Wagner, received her first singing lessons from her mother, Helene Grabenhorst. She then studied at the Hochschule für Musik "Franz Liszt" in Weimar with Venceslava Hruba-Freiberger, at McGill University in Montreal, Canada with Professor Lucile Evans and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" in Leipzig with Professor Hans-Joachim Beyer. She received further artistic training by attending master-classes with Peter Schreier, Graham Johnson and Ingrid Figur and has repeatedly worked with Edith Wiens. She has won several national and international competitions, including the International Mozart Singing Competition in Prague, 3rd prize at the Paula Salomon-Lindberg Competition for for Contemporary Lied in Berlin (2005), winner of the Lortzing Competition in Leipzig (2007); Lied prize at the Mozart Competition in Prague (2008), among others. She also won scholarships of the Deutschen Akademischen Austauschdienstes (DAAD) (2003) and the Friends of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Leipzig, and of the Leipzig Opera (2008), where she sang Le Feu and Rossignol in Ravel's L'enfant et les Sortileges and Anna Reich in Lustigen Weibern von Windsor.
After her debut in 2002 with Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana in the Herkulessaal in Munich Julia Sophie Wagner quickly became a sought after recial and concert singer, specializing in the vocal works of J.S. Bach. Recently also praised for her interpretations of the major classic and romantic oratorios, her debut of L.v. Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, which she performed at the Kennedy Center under the baton of Julian Wachner, was voted »#1 Kennedy Center Event of 2014« by Washington Life Magazine.
Sophie Julia Wagner is in demand primarily as recital and concert singer. She made her concert debut in 2002 in Carmina Burana at the Herkulessaal in Munich. She has worked with renowned orchestras including the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Radio-Symphonie-Orchester-Berlin, Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE (Madrid), RAI Torino, Washington National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale, Nürnberger Symphoniker, Bach-Collegium Stuttgart (Director: Helmuth Rilling), Bach Collegium München, as well as with with Baroque ensembles such as the Händel-Festspielorchester der Oper Halle, Hamburg Sinfonietta, Züricher Barockorchester LaPartita and Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum, Ensemble Moderntimes_1800, Orchester der J.S. Bach-Stiftung St. Gallen (Director: Rudolf Lutz), Pratum Integrum Moscow and Tafelmusik Toronto. Many of these concerts were recorded for radio and television as well as for CD and DVD.
Julia Sophie Wagner is also dedicated more and more to the opera. She was last heard in Osnabrück as Gretel, as well as in Gera and Altenburg as Najade in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos.
Concert tours and guest appearances have taken Julia Sophie Wagner to many European countries, North and South America, Japan and to Egypt, where she performed in venues like Berlin Philharmonie, Palau de la Musica Barcelona, Kennedy Center in Washington, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires and Cairo Opera House, to name a few. In addition, she is frequently invited to prestigious international music festivals, including the Maggio Musicale Florence, Mendelssohn Festtagen in Leipzig, Bachfest Leipzig, Tagen alter Musik Herne, Oregon Bach Festival, Carinthian Summer and the European Music Festival Stuttgart under Helmuth Rilling, and the Rheingau Musikfestival and Festival de la Chaise Dieu under Daniel Reuss.
Julia Sophie Wagner enjoys a fruitful musical friendship with Helmuth Rilling. After a successful tour of Germany with J.S. Bach's B-minor Mass (BWV 232) with concerts in the Liederhalle Stuttgart and the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, she was invited to sing a series of concerts with Bach solo cantatas in Italy, followed by a tour throughout South America with the ensembles of the Bach Academy Stuttgart.
The music of J.S. Bach being one main focus of her work, Julia Sophie Wagner also follows her passion for chamber music. She gave various recitals and chamber concerts at the Bachfest Leipzig, the Chamber Music
Festival Hohenstaufen, the Tonhalle Zurich as well as in Japan. Paul Rivinius, Goetz Payer and Eric Schneider are amongst her musical partners.
Last Julia Sophie Wagner has given Lieder recitals in Germany and Japan, besides; she was a guest in Barcelona, where she sang in the concert series celbrating the 100 Anniversary of the Palau de la Musica the soprano part in Haydn's Seasons. She also sang in Haydn's Creation under Helmuth Rilling in Winterthur and Florence, and appeared concerts at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig and the Philharmonie in Berlin.
Recent projects include her debut as Queen of the night, under the baton of Howard Arman and concerts with solo cantatas by J.S. Bach in Santiago de Compostela conducted by Helmuth Rilling, and concerts at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and at the Liederhalle. Other future concerts include concerts of George Frideric Handel’s Saul (Münchener Bach-Chor under Hansjörg Albrecht) in Brixen and Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel in Osnabrück.
Julia Sophie Wagner can be heard on the CD production Un momento di contento (arias by Georg Frideric Handel), published by Coviello. With Eric Schneider she recently recorded a CD in co-production with the German national radio station DeutschlandradioKultur combining songs by Clara Schumann and Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn and Edvard Grieg. The CD was presented at the Bachfest Leipzig in June 2015.
Julia Sophie Wagner now lives in Leipzig. |
