Hailed by Opera News as “radiant and riveting” and the New York Times as “beautiful in face and voice”, Canadian coloratura mezzo Julia Dawson is a winner of the George London Award and the Anny-Schlemm Preis and began her career at Oper Frankfurt as a member of the solo ensemble where she sang Angelina in “La cenerentola” and Goffredo in a new production of “Rinaldo” by Ted Huffman. Upcoming engagements include a return to Oper Frankfurt, debuts with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the French Radio Symphony under the baton of Barbara Hannigan, as well as a role debut at the Festival Gut Immling in Bavaria.

Ms. Dawson was a member of the solo ensemble at Oper Frankfurt from 2017-2019 where she is also a graduate of the Opernstudio. Important debuts in Frankfurt include Angelina in La Cenerentola, Goffredo in Ted Huffman’s new production of Rinaldo, and the Kitchen Boy in Rusalka as well as roles in new productions of Der Ferne Klang, Drei Opern von Ernst Krenek, Rigoletto, and Paul Bunyan amongst others. Ms. Dawson returned to Oper Frankfurt in the ¹⁹⁄₂₀ season for Axinja in a new production of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.

Further guest engagements include Zerlina in Don Giovanni for Theater Bremen, the title role of Scarlatti’s Erminia as well as Emilia in Vivaldi’s Catone in Utica with Opera Lafayette, 2. Waldelfe in Rusalka at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni for Theater Plauen-Zwickau, Musetta in La bohème with Opera de Guatemala, and Piacere in Handel’s Il trionfo del Tempo e del disinganno with Kiez Oper, Berlin.

Ms. Dawson has been heard in concert singing Poème de l’amour et de la mer with the Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival, Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor KV 427 with the Vocal Concert Dresden and Bach’s Mass in B minor with the Houston Bach Society.

As a recitalist, Ms. Dawson has been presented by Vocal Arts DC and the New York Festival of Song as well as in concerts broadcast on German radio Hessischer Rundfunk. Ms. Dawson recently enjoyed performing and producing the world premiere of Girl in the Snow, a monodrama for voice and piano by American composer Scott Ordway, which was presented by Musica+ Frankfurt and for which a studio recording is forthcoming.

A 2015 George London Award Competition winner, Ms. Dawson received the Anny Schlemm Preis from Oper Frankfurt, an honour given to a singer associated with the company once every five years. Ms. Dawson is a graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts, Rice University, and Oberlin Conservatory.

This Spring while locked down in Alsace, France during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Julia reached out to colleagues around the world to produce and perform in the first quarantine music video to involve both orchestra and singers: “Soave sia il vento” brought together musicians from 10 different orchestras and singers from 3 countries. This was followed by MozArt Attack! Mozart’s Alleluia, and La ci darem la mano, directed by Mary Birnbaum, and starring Steven LaBrie in New York, Musica 14.8, a Japanese string orchestra, and members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Julia continued to explore the possibilities of digital music-making with the new music initiative “Gone in 60 Seconds,” a series of new one-minute pieces by living composers written for voice and violin to be shared on social media and raising funds for the Bail Project.