Julia Claire Taylor is an American soprano with a uniquely “beautiful set of pipes”, according to the San Diego Reader. She relocated to NYC in early 2019, and has enjoyed getting settled in the Big Apple and working with local companies, festivals, and composers, like her friend Felix Jarrar. In spring of 2020, she was supposed to make her tri-state area debut as Gianetta in The Gondoliers with Troupers Light Opera, which was postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 crisis. Instead, she has collaborated with her colleagues to create “Social Distancing Salons” online, as well as participated in the groundbreaking “DIY Program for Classical Singers” with Cindy Sadler, sang in masterclasses with Lisette Oropesa, Jennifer Rowley, and Ailyn Pèrez,  and was awarded a merit scholarship to the “International Summer Opera Festival of Morelia”, where she studied the roles of both Musetta and Mimì in La Bohème. Julia looks forward to singing in an abridged version of Ariadne auf Naxos in a digital concert format in May 2021.

Taylor’s most recent stage credits include credits around the United States and Italy: Fiordiligi in Così fan Tutte (Vocal Academy of Orvieto, Italy- Koch Cultural Grant Winner), covering Violetta Valéry in La Traviata (Lawrence Opera Theatre), Birdie in Regina (KU Opera), Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni (Music Academy International, KU Opera), and Erste Dame in Die Zauberflöte (Music Academy International). Other portrayals include Casilda in The Gondoliers (Bodhi Tree Concerts, San Diego), Mrs. Gobineaux in The Medium (KU Opera), Elena in Il Cappello di Paglia di Firenze (Point Loma Opera Theatre), and The Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas (Point Loma Opera Theatre). Ms. Taylor has also performed in several productions of Art Song Theatre in the United States and Canada, and enjoys this up-and-coming art form. She was a Grand Prize winner in the Kansas City Music Club Scholarship Competition in 2018, California Women’s Chorus Competition in 2016, and University of San Diego Messiah Competition in 2015. She also won a highly competitive  Koch Cultural Grant in 2019 to perform with the Vocal Academy of Orvieto for its inaugural season  in Orvieto, Italy.

Taylor is proud to be an OperaWorks alumna (2011, 2014) and received additional training in art song and art song theatre at Vancouver International Song Institute (VISI, 2010). She has performed in masterclasses with Lisette Oropesa (2020), Ailyn Pèrez (2020), Jennifer Rowley (2020), Angelina Reaux (2015), Michael Sokol (2016), Audra MacDonald and Andy Einhorn (2011), and Ann Baltz (2011, 2014). Her most recent teachers include Jennifer Rowley, Marie Te Hapuku, Joyce Castle, and Michael Sokol. Originally, Julia Claire grew up in Westport, CT, but most recently hails from San Diego, CA. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and her Master’s degree from the University of Kansas. 

She is cheered on by her bicoastal and international familial fan base: Mom and Dad from San Diego, her sister Chrissy (NYC), and her half-sister Melissa (Paris, France), and appreciates the lukewarm support of her rescue Maine Coon cat, Sunshine.