Thaïs St Julien is a native of New Orleans, and is argurably the South's foremost singer of Early Music

Early music

Early music is generally understood as comprising all music from the earliest times up to the Renaissance. However, today this term has come to include "any music for which a historically appropriate style of performance must be reconstructed on the basis of surviving scores, treatises,...

. The soprano

Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

 studied under Charles Paddock, Virginia MacWatters

Virginia MacWatters

Virginia MacWatters was an acclaimed American coloratura soprano.Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, MacWatters studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, and sang 611 Broadway performances of Adele in Rosalinda , conducted by Erich Korngold, from 1942 to 1944...

 and Norma Newton, and is Co-Director (with Milton G. Scheuermann, Jr) of the New Orleans Musica da Camera

New Orleans Musica da Camera

The New Orleans Musica da Camera was founded in 1966, by Milton G. Scheuermann, Jr, and is the oldest surviving Early Music organisation in the United States. They perform music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, using historically-informed performance techniques and reproductions of period...

, which specialises in music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and has toured throughout the Gulf South. She is also Foundress of Vox Feminæ, the female choral extension of the MdC.

Miss St Julien has also appeared with The New Opera Theatre

The New Opera Theatre

The New Opera Theatre was a New Orleans-based opera company founded in 1986, with conductor Louise LaBruyère as Music Director and stage director Brian Morgan serving as Artistic Director...

 (as Dido in Dido and Æneas, her New York debut at Symphony Space

Symphony Space

Symphony Space is a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization at 2537 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Performances take place in the 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theatre or the 160-seat Leonard Nimoy Thalia theater. Programs include music, dance, theater, film, and literary readings...

, 1988), Pro Arte Chorale (Amor in a Concert Version of Orfeo ed Euridice, opposite Derek Lee Ragin

Derek Lee Ragin

Derek Lee Ragin is an American countertenor.Ragin studied as a piano major at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. While at Oberlin he took secondary voice lessons with Richard Anderson. He began his operatic career at Oberlin in Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream as Oberon...

), Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra

Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra

The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra is an American orchestra based in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the only full-time, professional orchestra in the Gulf South. The music director is Carlos Miguel Prieto....

 (Messiah), Great Neck Choral Society, International Dvořák Festival, Lyric Opera of Dallas, New Orleans Opera

New Orleans Opera

Opera has long been part of the musical culture of New Orleans, Louisiana. Operas have regularly been performed in the city since the 1790s, and for the majority of the city's history since the early 19th century, New Orleans has had a resident company regularly performing opera in addition to...

 Association, Southwest Chamber Orchestra, Jefferson Performing Arts Society (Bach's Magnificat), etc.

In 1997, the soprano was Dircé in the Opera Quotannis

Opera Quotannis

Opera Quotannis was a New York-based opera company which was founded in 1990, with conductor Bart Folse as Music Director and stage director Brian Morgan serving as Artistic Director...

 Médée, opposite Phyllis Treigle

Phyllis Treigle

Phyllis Treigle is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, and is a noted American soprano, and the daughter of the great bass-baritone Norman Treigle...

 and D'Anna Fortunato

D'Anna Fortunato

D'Anna Fortunato is a noted American mezzo-soprano. Among her teachers were Phyllis Curtin and Gladys Childs Miller...

, at Alice Tully Hall

Alice Tully Hall

Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. It is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and philanthropist whose donations assisted in the construction of the hall...

, Lincoln Center. This was the uncut, original opéra-comique version of the Cherubini masterpiece, and Miss St Julien was possibly the only singer in the twentieth century to sing the florid, difficult role complete and unadulterated.

She is the recipient of the 2007 Louisiana Artist Fellowship in Music.

Discography

• Cherubini: Médée (P.Treigle, Fortunato; Folse, 1997) Newport Classic
  Newport Classic
  Newport Classic, Ltd, is a record label of classical music, and is located in Newport, Rhode Island.In its catalog are recordings of both familiar and unusual works, including Casanova's Homecoming, A Waterbird Talk, Trouble in Tahiti, A Ceremony of Carols, Médée , Il campanello di notte, The Jumping...
  
  

Musica da Camera Discography

• "Satires, Desires & Excesses" (1992) Centaur
• "Natus est" (1994) Centaur
• "The Cross of Red" (1996) Centaur
• "Maiden, Mother, Muse" (1998) Centaur
• "Les motés d'Arras" (Fithian; 2000) Centaur
• "Ah, Sweet Lady" (1974-2009) Belle Alliance