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The American mezzo-soprano and voice teacher, Julia Bentley, obtained her Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance (1981-1985), and Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance (1987-1989), and her Artist Diploma (1990), all from from Indiana University Bloomington. She also studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Wien (1986) and Britton-Pears School for Advanced Musical Study (2000). She completed apprenticeships with the Aspen Music Festival (1985-1987), Santa Fe Opera and the Chicago Lyric Opera.
Since then, Julia Bentley has appeared in leading operatic roles (Carmen, Rosina, Dorbella, Despina, and both Rossini and Massenet Cinderellas) from Anchorage to New York, and has been featured as a soloist with orchestras led by George Manahan, Raymond Leppard, Oliver Knussen, Robert Shaw and Pierre Boulez. She performs in Chicago with the Mostly Music, CUBE, Contemporary Chamber Players, Orion Ensemble, Pinotage, New Budapest Orpheum Society, Ensemble Noamnesia, Fulcrum Point, Chicago Chamber Musicians, Chicago Opera Theater, Concertante di Chicago, Newberry Consort, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Lyric Opera and MusicNOW series at Symphony Center with conductor Cliff Colnot.
Julia Bentley has been a regular guest artist with the Chicago Chamber Musicians' Music at the Millennium and Composer Perspectives series, most recently in works by Luciano Berio, Carter, and Pierre Boulez under the direction of Pierre Boulez. In 2001 she appeared to critical acclaim at Weill Hall with Pierre Boulez as the soloist in Le Marteau Sans Maître. In 2002 and 2006 she performed at the Handel Week Festival in Oak Park, Illinois. In 2007-2008 season she sang La Cenerentola for Sacramento Opera, Meg in Little Women for Dayton Opera, and Time Cycle by Lukas Foss during the composer's Chicago residency. 2008-2009 season included performances of George Frideric Handel’s Messiah with the Milwaukee Symphony, and title role in Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia with Chicago Opera Theater. Recent engagements have also included performances of the Messiah with the Apollo Chorus at Orchestra Hall, appearances with the Ars Viva Orchestra and the Bach Week Festival (Evanston, Illinois), performances of La Damnation de Faust with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with eighth blackbird, and J.S. Bach's B Minor Mass (BWV 232) with the Apollo Chorus, as well as chamber music series in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. She has recorded on the Albany, Cedille and Tintagel labels.
Julia Bentley has taught voice at the Northern Illinois University (1998-2001, 2005-2006); Music Institute of Chicago (2008-2012); North Park University (2012-2014); DePaul University School of Music in Chicago (August 2009-May 2014); Concordia University Chicago (2012-2015); University of Missouri-Columbia (August 2016-May 2018); Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (since August 2018). Among the singers who have studied with her and/or attended her master-classes: Sara Dailey Muñoz (Mezzo-soprano), Victoria Schemenauer (Soprano). |
