Biography
Julie Comparini undertook professional stage acting training at a young age and made their singing debut at the age of seventeen in a production of Judas Maccabaeus conducted by Nicholas McGegan. They went on to complete degrees in cognitive science/linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley and early music singing at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen.
A specialist in early music, new music and multimedia theater, their repertoire includes rare or newly re-discovered early operas such as Le Cinesi (Festival Alte Musik Knechtsteden), The Dragon of Wantley (Tage der Barockmusik Schrobenhausen), Orpheus, oder die wunderbare Beständigkeit der Liebe (Donaufestwochen), and Doktor und Apotheker (Schloss Rheinsberg) as well as the „Stadtteiloper“ Menuchims Reise (Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie), the world premiere of the operetta Cabaret Voltaire (Taschenphilharmonie München) and the scenic production Weihnachtsoratorium unwrapped (Burghof Lörrach, Festival Nox Illuminata). Their own creations of multimedia projects and scenic concerts such as Meeresleuchten, Some Strange Felicity, Métamorphoses and De nachtegaal have been performed at the Leipziger Bachfest, the Banchetto Musicale Festival in Vilnius, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Vlaamse Oper, the Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen, the Hessicher Rundfunk and throughout Flanders.
As a concert and ensemble singer, they sang the title role in the modern premiere of Simon Mayr's Jacob a Labano fugiens and have performed under the direction of Olof Boman, Michi Gaigg, and Thomas Hengelbrock. They appear regularly with the Balthasar-Neumann-Chor and the Bremer Kaffeehaus-Orchester and have sung more than 100 Bach cantatas as part of the project “Laudate-Cantate” at the Kirche Unser Lieben Frauen in Bremen. In 2020, composer Ailís Ní Ríain wrote the song cycle Watershed for them and Irish Arts Council Music Commissions Award recipient Yonit Kosovske.
Their academic work includes teaching singing in the early music department of the Hochschule für Künste Bremen as well as lectures, seminars and translations of musicological and Baroque song texts for music publishers and distributors. They founded the Musikfilmfestival Bremen with harpsichordist Alina Rotaru and curated it from 2013-2019.