Julia Soojin Cavallaro, mezzo-soprano, is an accomplished soloist, ensemble singer, and composer. Critics have praised her “warm mezzo, perfect diction, and easy phrasing” (New York Classical Review) and “round, chocolaty tone” (Boston Classical Review).
Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Julia grew up in an Italian and Korean American home filled with music and art. She earned an AB in Music from Harvard College and MusM in Voice Performance from the Boston University College of Fine Arts. She also attended young artist training programs at the Amherst Early Music Festival, Boston Early Music Festival, Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Longy School of Music of Bard College, and Vancouver Early Music Festival. She is currently pursuing an MA in Composition at Tufts University, where she studies with John McDonald. Her songs for voice, piano, and chamber ensemble have been premiered at Tufts and as part of Art Song Lab in Vancouver, BC.
As a professional choral artist, Julia sings with leading vocal ensembles across the United States, including the Bach Project, Emmanuel Music, Ensemble Altera, the Handel and Haydn Society, Upper Valley Baroque, Yale Choral Artists, Zenith Ensemble, and GRAMMY-nominated groups True Concord Voices & Orchestra and Skylark Vocal Ensemble. Reviewers have highlighted her work, writing, “Julia Cavallaro’s mezzo-soprano voice possesses a distinctive, beautiful quality all her own. As an ensemble singer, she is able to convey variations in vocal color, enhancing the blend” (The Concord Journal).
Julia has appeared as a guest soloist with numerous New England choruses, including Commonwealth Chorale, Concord Chorus, The Kent Singers, Masterworks Chorale, New England Classical Singers, and Seraphim Singers. Highlights include the Bach Magnificat, Mass in B minor, and St. John Passion; Duruflé Requiem; Handel Messiah; Mozart Requiem and Vespers; and Vivaldi Gloria and Dixit Dominus. Reviewers have lauded her interpretation of Baroque music in particular: “Singing throughout her range with a pure and lovely tone, she knows how to shape and ornament a vocal line with just the right amount of freedom… Her ability to ring changes in vocal characterization from dramatic narration to hopeful expectation to passionate outcry to cheerful moralizing was astonishing” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer).
Past stage roles include Cupid in Blow’s Venus & Adonis with New Camerata Opera, Madame de Volanges in Susa’s The Dangerous Liaisons with Boston Opera Collaborative, and the Sorceress in Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas with the Harvard Early Music Society. Her rendition of Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -leben in a site-specific, immersive staging with Boston Opera Collaborative was hailed by Boston Classical Review as one of its Top Ten Performances of 2017. Critics also commended her portrayal of Cupid in Venus & Adonis, writing, “Julia Cavallaro was a model of consistency, bringing a firm, warm mezzo, perfect diction, and easy phrasing as Cupid” (New York Classical Review) and “[she] excelled by means of humor and superb diction” (Voce di Meche).
An avid recitalist and chamber musician, Julia specializes in early music, art song, and contemporary repertoire. She has appeared with early music ensembles In Stile Moderno, Schola Cantorum of Boston, and Seven Times Salt in programs ranging from Josquin and Palestrina to Dowland, Monteverdi, and more. She often collaborates with composer and pianist Rodney Lister. Together they have given recitals at Boston University, Harvard University, Tufts University, and New England Conservatory, performing songs by Babbitt, Brahms, Crawford-Seeger, Fauré, Finzi, Lister, Poulenc, Satie, Thomson, and Weir.
Julia has sung professionally for Episcopal churches for over a decade, including Emmanuel Church in Boston, the Church of the Advent, St. Thomas’s New Haven, the Episcopal Church at Yale, St. Mark’s New Canaan, Christ Church New Haven, and Trinity Church in the City of Boston. She has toured England with the Trinity choirs three times, singing in residence at Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, as well as the Cathedrals of Canterbury, Salisbury, Wells, and Winchester.
In addition to her performing career, Julia works to support music education for students of all ages and diverse backgrounds. As Vice President of Marketing and Support for Artusi: Interactive Music Theory & Aural Skills, she helps instructors and students from around the world teach and learn musical skills ranging from fundamentals to advanced part-writing, dictation, and counterpoint. She previously served as Administrative Coordinator for the Tufts University Department of Music and as a Program Director at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education.
Julia lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband, Dan, and her cats, Bun and Gin. In her spare time, she enjoys playing board games, reading graphic novels, and analyzing films.
