Julia Adolphe Tickets

Julia Adolphe (born in New York City) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. Her works include choral, orchestral, operatic, chamber and art song pieces.

Her initial mainstream recognition was in November 2016 at the New York premiere of her viola concerto Unearth, Release, which was co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and the League of American Orchestras. Adolphe has a Bachelor of arts from Cornell University and a Master of Music degree in music composition from USC and is pursuing her doctoral degree from the USC Thornton School of Music.

She is the niece of composer Bruce Adolphe.

Julia Adolphe’s music has been described as “alive with invention” (Alex Ross, The New Yorker), “colorful, mercurial, deftly orchestrated” (Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times) displaying “a remarkable gift for sustaining a compelling musical narrative” (Thomas May, Musical America). Adolphe’s works are performed across the U.S. and abroad by renowned orchestras and ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, James Conlon and the Cincinnati May Festival Chorus, soprano Hila Plitmann, pianist Gloria Cheng, and the Bravo! Vail Music Festival, among others. Current commissions include an orchestral work for the LA Philharmonic’s centennial season, choral works for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and Peninsula Women’s Chorus, and a comic opera entitled A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears, based on the novel by Jules Feiffer with a libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann. Adolphe’s 2017 orchestral work, White Stone, premiered by the NY Philharmonic, followed on the heels of the NY Philharmonic’s 2016 premiere of Unearth, Release, Adolphe’s viola concerto composed for Cynthia Phelps, and Dark Sand, Sifting Light, featured during the 2014 NY Phil Biennial. Adolphe has received numerous awards including a 2017 ASCAP Young Composer Award, a 2016 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, a 2016 OPERA America Discovery Grant, and a 2015 Charles Ives Scholarship from the Academy of Arts and Letters. Julia is a native New Yorker living in Los Angeles. She received her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and a master's degree from the USC Thornton School of Music.