Music

Julie Adams

Artist/Teacher of Voice

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It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
— Theodore Roosevelt

Faculty Information

Additional Faculty Information for Julie Adams

Education

B.M. in Vocal Performance, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 2011

M.M. in Vocal Performance, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 2013

Awards

Palm Springs Opera Guild Vocal Competition: 1st Place (2019)

James Toland Vocal Arts Competition: 1st Place (2017)

The Brava! Opera Theater and James M. Collier Young Artist Vocal Competition: 1st Place (2015)

Elizabeth Connell Prize Competition: 1st Place (2015)

Sara Tucker Study Grant: Winner (2015)

Kirsten Flagstad Award, George London Foundation: Winner (2015)

San Francisco Opera: Adler Fellow (2014)

Operalia Competition: Semi-Finalist (2014)

Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions: Winner (2014)

Merola Opera Program (San Francisco, California; 2014)

Music Academy of the West: Voice Fellow (Santa Barbara, California; 2013)

International Vocal Arts Institute: Vocalist (Tel Aviv, Israel; 2012)

International Vocal Arts Institute: Vocalist (Blacksburg, Virginia; 2011)

Memberships

American Guild of Musical Artists

Biography

Julie Adams is an award-winning American soprano and educator who joined the Hillsdale College faculty in Spring 2026 as Artist-Teacher of Music—Voice. Her international performing career has taken her to many of the world’s leading opera houses and concert stages, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opernhaus Zürich, Stadttheater Bern, Oper Wuppertal, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Atlanta Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, and Arizona Opera.

Recent engagements include Gerhilde in Wagner’s Die Walküre at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Senta in Der fliegende Holländer with Des Moines Metro Opera, Gerhilde with Atlanta Opera and Opernhaus Zürich, and Sieglinde in Die Walküre at Stadttheater Bern. Other notable roles include Elsa in Lohengrin with San Francisco Opera, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser with Oper Wuppertal, Rusalka in Rusalka and Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly with Staatstheater Braunschweig, and Mimì in La bohème with San Francisco Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, and Arizona Opera. As a concert soloist, Adams has appeared in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Ann Arbor Symphony and Pomona College and in Mahler’s Second Symphony with the Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal.

Adams is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Elizabeth Connell Prize, the George London Foundation’s Kirsten Flagstad Award, and the Sara Tucker Study Grant. She was also a semifinalist in Plácido Domingo’s Operalia competition and served as an Adler Fellow with San Francisco Opera.

A graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Adams holds both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Vocal Performance. She has taught voice since 2014, working with singers across opera, musical theatre, jazz, pop, and contemporary repertoire. Her teaching centers on developing healthy, sustainable vocal technique while nurturing each student’s individuality and artistic authenticity. She believes that every voice is unique and seeks to equip students with the technical foundation, confidence, and expressive freedom necessary to become compelling and honest communicators through music.