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The American mezzo-soprano, Julie Comparini, undertook professional stage acting training in her youth and made her singing debut at the age of 17 in a production of Judas Maccabaeus conducted by Nicholas McGegan. She went on to complete degrees in cognitive science/linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley and early music singing with Ruth Riedel and Harry van der Kamp at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen.
A specialist in early music, new music and multimedia theater, Julie Comparini has appeared in operas such as The Dragon of Wantley (Tage der Barockmusik Schrobenhausen), Orpheus, oder die wunderbare Beständigkeit der Liebe (Donaufestwochen), and Doktor und Apotheker (Schloss Rheinsberg) as well as the interdisciplinary theater pieces Weihnachtsoratorium revisited (Festspielhaus St. Pölten) and Die Gelbe Tapete (theaterbar Berlin). She created the scenic concerts Some Strange Felicity, Métamorphoses and De nachtegaal for the Belgian ensemble Sospiri Ardenti, with whom she performed those works at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Vlaamse Oper, the Hessicher Rundfunk and throughout Flanders.
As a concert and ensemble singer, Julie Comparini sang the title role in the modern premiere of Simon Mayr's Jacob a Labano fugiens and has performed under the direction of Michi Gaigg, Thomas Hengelbrock, Gustav Leonhardt and Marc Minkowski. She appears regularly with the Balthasar-Neumann-Chor, Schola Heidelberg, Ensemble Wesser-Renaissance and diverse chamber music ensembles and has sung more than 50 J.S. Bach's cantatas as part of the project "Laudate-Cantate" at the Kirche Unser Lieben Frauen in Bremen.
Julie Comparini's academic work includes lectures on various musicological and linguistic subjects and translations of Baroque song texts for Edition Raumklang and the ortus Musikverlag. She taught singing in the early music department of the Hochschule für Künste Bremen and gives seminars in Renaissance notation in Germany and abroad. She founded and curates the Musikfilmfestival Bremen with harpsichordist Alina Rotaru. |
