American art song composer Juliana Hall specializes in creating vocal works: “glistening, poignant music” (Gramophone), “complex in conception and construction” (Planet Hugill, London) with “graceful, nuanced vocal lines” (Opera News).
Hall’s more than 60 song cycles, monodramas, and vocal chamber works have been described as “brilliant” (Washington Post), “beguiling” (The Times, London), and “the most genuinely moving music of the afternoon” (Boston Globe) — “masterful writing in every respect” (NATS Journal of Singing).
Hall attended the Yale School of Music as a graduate student, studying composition with Frederic Rzewski, Leon Kirchner, and Martin Bresnick, receiving her masters degree in 1987. Following Yale she moved to Minneapolis to study with renowned vocal composer Dominick Argento.
— Dominick Argento
Shortly after arriving in Minnesota later in 1987, she wrote a song cycle as a first commission for soprano Dawn Upshaw. The piece received both popular and critical acclaim, with performances across America and around the world. In 1989, Hall was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition, as well as her second commission for a song cycle for Metropolitan Opera baritone David Malis.
Since completing her studies, Hall has composed works for dozens of singers, including vocal luminaries Brian Asawa, Stephanie Blythe, Molly Fillmore, Anthony Dean Griffey, Zachary James, Randall Scarlata, and Kitty Whately.
— Stephanie Blythe
Hall’s music has been performed at venues such as the 92nd Street Y, Ambassador Auditorium, Blackheath Halls, Concertgebouw Recital Hall, DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Herbst Theatre, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Library of Congress, Ordway Music Theater, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and Wigmore Hall.
Hall’s music has also been performed at numerous festivals, among them the Bitesize Proms, Beverley Chamber Music, Buxton International, Carmel Bach, Festival Internacional de Música de Cámara de Barranquilla, Limes, Music and Beyond, Norfolk Chamber Music, Ojai, Oxford International Song, Salisbury International, Source Song, and Voces8 Live from London Festivals, in addition to the International Song Festival Zeist, Lindsey Christiansen Art Song Festival, London Festival of American Music, Northern Ireland Opera Festival of Voice, Rhonefestival für Liedkunst, Schumannfest Düsseldorf, and the Sparks & Wiry Cries songSLAM Festival.
— Margo Garrett
In discussing her long-time career interest in writing vocal music, Hall shares that, “I have rarely gone a day without some sort of text in my mind, primarily poems, but also diaries, fables, letters, play texts, and sacred writings. Great writers illuminate beauty, truth, and magic present in even the smallest of things in our world, and since song is all about text, it is those writers’ insights I wish to share in my songs.”
. . . read more about Juliana Hall
— Washington Post
A new baritone version of the song AT THAT HOUR WHEN ALL THINGS HAVE REPOSE (James Joyce) has just been published by the E. C. Schirmer Music Company.
A new mezzo-soprano version of the song cycle WINTER WINDOWS (Walter de la Mare, Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Percy Byssche Shelley) has just been published by the E. C. Schirmer Music Company.
A new song cycle for soprano and piano, NINE STEINS (Gertrude Stein), has just been published by the E. C. Schirmer Music Company.
June 8, 2024 — New Baritone Version of AT THAT HOUR WHEN ALL THINGS HAVE REPOSE (premiere) — Saratoga Springs, NY
Baritone Christopher Rodriguez & pianist Cris Frisco performed at the Mostly Modern Festival.
June 29, 2024 — AN OCCASION (from “NINE STEINS”) — Knoxville, TN
Soprano Elena Klein & pianist Eileen Downey performed at the National Association of Teachers of Singing’s 2024 Conference at the Knoxville Convention Center.
June 30, 2024 — AT THAT HOUR WHEN ALL THINGS HAVE REPOSE (from “OF THAT SO SWEET IMPRISONMENT”) — Knoxville, TN
Mezzo-Soprano Renee Tatum & pianist Eileen Downey performed at the National Association of Teachers of Singing’s 2024 Conference at the Knoxville Convention Center.
July 21, 2024 — RILKE SONG — Flagstaff, AZ
English Horn player Margaret Marco & pianist Aimee Fincher perform at the International Double Reed Society’s 2024 Annual Conference at Northern Arizona University.
July 21, 2024 — A CERTAIN TUNE — Flagstaff, AZ
English Horn player Margaret Marco performs at the International Double Reed Society’s 2024 Annual Conference at Northern Arizona University.
July 31, 2024 — A WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN — Lerici, Italy
Mezzo-soprano Sarah Rappoport & pianist Gianluca Marcianò perform at the 8th Lerici Music Festival.
Fall 2024 (date tba) — FROST BITES (premiere) — Location tba
Performers tba perform at Venue tba.
Fall 2024 (date tba) — NINE STEINS (premiere) — Location tba
Performers tba perform at Venue tba.
Fall 2024 (date tba) — POETS OF THE DAWN (premiere) — Tuscaloosa, AL
Bass-Baritone Paul Houghtaling & pianist Kevin Chance perform at the University of Alabama.
February 7, 2025 — THAT DELICATE DANCE (premiere) — Coral Gables, FL
Soprano Sandra Lopez Neill & pianist Alan Johnson perform at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music.
March 25, 2025 — LOOK TWICE (premiere) — Cincinnati, OH
Mezzo-Soprano Ivy Walz & pianist Donna Loewy perform at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
March 28, 2025 — NIGHT DANCES — Lexington, VA
Soprano Heidi Thiessen performs at Washington & Lee University.
March 30, 2025 — LOOK TWICE — Lubbock, TX
Mezzo-Soprano Ivy Walz & pianist Donna Loewy perform at Texas Tech University.
Lawn As White As Driven Snow
Darryl Taylor countertenor : Juliana Hall piano
Some Things Are Dark
Dawn Upshaw soprano : Margo Garrett piano
Death’s Echo
Richard Lalli baritone : Juliana Hall piano
At That Hour When All Things Have Repose
Stephanie Blythe mezzo-soprano : Alan Louis Smith piano
Dream
Susan Narucki soprano : Donald Berman piano
Ahab
Zachary James bass-baritone : Charity Wicks piano
Godiva
Kitty Whately mezzo-soprano : Joseph Middleton piano
The Mystic Trumpeter
Anthony Dean Griffey tenor : Warren Jones piano