|
Julia Elise Hardin, a native of Lawrence, KS, has been touted as a "powerful" and "expressive" singer drawing from her extensive acting background. Beginning with a career primarily based in theater, Ms. Hardin continued with strict vocal training at Northwestern University. She has completed young artist apprenticeships through Central City Opera and Chicago Opera Theater, and is currently a resident studio artist with Florentine Opera.
Recent engagements include reprising the role of Polly in Britten’s The Beggar’s Opera, with Lorin Maazel’s Castelton Festival 2009; with Chicago Opera Theater’s La clemenza di Tito, where she covered Sesto; as well as productions with The Opera Company in Chicago. Other roles include performances with Central City Opera 2008 season as Rosalia in West Side Story, the Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas, as well as covering and performing Mrs. McLean in Susannah. She has also sung Tisbe in La Cenerentola (English) for the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Opera in the Neighborhoods program, Paoluccia in Piccinni’s La Buona Figliuola with Fondazione Lirico in Bari, Italy, and as a featured soloist in Bach’s Magnificat with the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra.
Engagements in 2010 include performances with Florentine Opera as Mrs. Baines in Elmer Gantry and Giovanna in Rigoletto, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro at the Peninsula Music Festival, and performances at the 2010 Castelton Festival in Suor Angelica and The Beggar's Opera.
Ms. Hardin was a selected for the 2009 Neue Stimmen semi-finals in Germany, and a finalist for the Chicago Union League competition, as well as Second Place in the 2010 Chicago Bel Canto Foundation competition. She was winner of the 2007 Friends of Austria vocal competition, second place finalist for the 2007 NATS vocal competition, and a 2006 I Solisti soloist for the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music’s Opera and Music Festival in Lucca, Italy. Ms. Hardin holds a bachelors degree from the University of Kansas and a masters from Northwestern University. She currently resides in Chicago. |
