Julia Elise Hardin
Julia Elise Hardin, a native of Lawrence, KS, has been touted as a "powerful" and "expressive" singer drawing from her extensive acting background. Beginning with a career primarily based in theater, Ms. Hardin continued with strict vocal training at Northwestern University. She has completed young artist apprenticeships through Central City Opera and Chicago Opera Theater, and was a 2009-2010 resident Studio Artist with Florentine Opera.
Recent engagements include performances with Florentine Opera's 2009-2010 season as Mrs. Baines in Elmer Gantry and Giovanna in Rigoletto. In the summer of 2010 she will be reprising the role of Polly in Britten’s The Beggar’s Opera, and as the Nursing Sister in Suor Angelica with Lorin Maazel’s Castelton Festival. Ms. Hardin has performed in Chicago Opera Theater’s La clemenza di Tito, where she covered Sesto; as well as productions with The Opera Company in Chicago. Other roles include performances with Central City Opera as Rosalia in West Side Story, the Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas, as well as covering and performing Mrs. McLean in Susannah. She has also sung Tisbe in La Cenerentola (English) for the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Opera in the Neighborhoods program, Paoluccia in Piccinni’s La Buona Figliuola with Fondazione Lirico in Bari, Italy, and as a featured soloist in Bach’s Magnificat with the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Hardin took second at the 2010 Bel Canto Foundation competition in Chicago, was selected for the 2009 Neue Stimmen semi-finals in Germany, and a finalist for the Chicago Union League competition. She was winner of the 2007 Friends of Austria vocal competition, second place finalist for the 2007 NATS vocal competition, and a 2006 I Solisti soloist for the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music’s Opera and Music Festival in Lucca, Italy. Ms. Hardin holds a bachelors degree from the University of Kansas and a masters from Northwestern University. She currently resides in Chicago.
