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The English soprano, Julie Cooper, read English and Music at St John's College, Durham. She studied with Julie Kennard at the Royal Academy of Music on a scholarship, winning prizes including the Croft Prize for Early Music and graduating with the DipRAM. Additionally she specialised in contemporary repertoire and performed Tippett's cycle The Heart's Assurance as well as several world premieres.
Operatic roles include Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Anne Truelove in Rake's Progress, and Fiordiligi in Cosi Fan Tutte for Cambridge Opera. A versatile approach has permitted Julie Cooper to number a wide variety of styles amongst her oratorio credits, including Monteverdi's Vespers, Baroque and Classical works such as The Creation, Dido & Aeneas, J.S. Bach's B Minor Mass (BWV 232), J.S. Bach's Cantata Jauchzet Gott (BWV 51), L.v. Beethoven's Choral Symphony, Orff's Carmina Burana, Sergei Rachmaninov's The Bells and Gustav Mahler's Das Klagende Lied, in venues which include St John's Smith Square and the Royal Albert Hall. She has performed chamber music by Alessandro Scarlatti, George Frideric Handel, Georg Philipp Telemann, W.A. Mozart and Schutz in various smaller groups in Oxford, London, throughout the UK and Europe.
More operatic roles include Fiordiligi in Cosi fan Tutti for Cambridge Opera and Dido in Dido and Aeneas for The Three Choirs Festival. Julie created the roles of Hummingbird and Iris in Ed Hughes’ The Birds for The Opera Group and was invited back to the Buxton Festival to sing to roles of Lucinda and Shepherdess in Gluck’s Armide. Most recently, Julie Cooper performed the role of Iphis in a staged performance of G.F. Handel’s Jeptha with the Frankfurt Festival Chorus in Mainz and sang a role in Will Gregory’s new opera Piccard in Space, premiered at The South Bank and recorded for BBC Radio 3.
On disc Julie Cooper can be heard singing Monteverdi Madrigals with The King’s Consort on Hyperion and on numerous recordings of Renaissance Music with the Huelgas Ensemble. She is a regular member of The Sixteen and The King’s Consort, who tour all over the world, and is frequently an additional invited member of the Hilliard Ensemble.
Julie Cooper, who lives in Oxford, enjoyed success singing Benjamin Britten's War Requiem with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall in 2004, and sang at the Wigmore Hall in recital with The Hilliard Ensembles. Other concerts in 2004 included Rossini's Petite Messe Solenelle at Hexham Abbey, J.S. Bach's B Minor Mass (BWV 232) at St James's Piccadilly, Messiah at Wells Cathedral and she also performed as part of The Sixteen's Handel in Oxford series. Engagements in 2005 have included creating the roles of Hummingbird and Iris in Ed Hughes's The Birds for The Opera Group, performing Tippett's Negro Spirituals with The Sixteen in their Choral Pilgrimage tour, and concerts at the Lincoln Centre, New York with The Hilliard Ensemble. In addition, she features on the soundtrack of the latest Ridley Scott film Kingdom of Heaven singing the Pie Jesu. Julie Cooper sang with Wokingham Choral Society Summer Celebration concert on June 10, 2000 at All Saints Church, Wokingham. She joined Wokingham Choral Society at Reading University Great Hall on November 18, 2006 to perform W.A. Mozart's Vesperae solennes de confessore K339 and Haydn's Missa in Angustiis (Nelson Mass).
Julie Cooper has performed extensively as a soloist and consort singer all over the world. Recent solo performances include Arvo Pärt's Stabat Mater and Miserere with The Hilliard Ensemble and BBC Singers in Tewkesbury Abbey; Benjamin Britten's War Requiem and Ralph Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall; W.A. Mozart's s Requiem with the Orquestre de Comunidad de Madrid conducted by Harry Christophers; Belinda in Dido and Aeneas with The King’s Consort and Johannes Brahms’ Requiem in the QEH for Harry Christophers and The Sixteen. She has subsequently recorded this on the Coro label and filmed it for television. She sang the role of Juno in The Fairy Queen at Theater an der Wien with The King’s Consort and Michal Saul with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen in the Palace of Versailles. She has also appeared in three highly acclaimed series of Sacred Music, presented by Simon Russell Beale on BBC4.
Forthcoming engagements in 2014-2015 include Belinda in Dido and Aeneas with The King's Consort in Vienna, Barcelona, Madrid and Granada; Israel In Egypt with The King's Consort in Leipzig; J. Brahms’ Requiem with The Sixteen in The Bridgewater Hall; W.A. Mozart's Requiem with The Sixteen in Granada; Gibbons madrigals with The Hilliard Ensemble at The Wigmore Hall; J.S. Bach's St Matthew Passion (BWV 244) with The London Bach Society; Purcell’s Indian Queen with The Sixteen in The Wigmore Hall and recording it for Coro and about forty Choral Pilgrimage concerts as a member of The Sixteen in Cathedrals, Abbeys and Minsters all over the UK.
Julie Cooper has recently been elected an Associate of The Royal Academy of Music. |
