Julia Gooding

Julia Gooding has been described as a soprano with "a perfect voice. a timbre of burnished antique gold" with a "blend of passion, subtlety, technical control and perfect diction" whose "rare gifts add up to a complete singer". Particularly renowned for her interpretation of Baroque music, she enjoys an international career combining both concert and staged performances with recordings for major labels, television and radio.

Along with Julia's extensive work with the Academy of Ancient Music (Christopher Hogwood/Paul Goodwin), the New London Consort (Philip Pickett), the Gabrieli Consort (Paul McCreesh), London Baroque and Florilegium, she has been a guest with many other specialist orchestras and conductors including Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert, Nicholas McGegan and Philharmonia Baroque, Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre, Ivor Bolton and St James Baroque, Marcus Creed and Freiburg Baroque, Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale and Gustav Leonhardt and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. She has performed Scarlatti Cantatas with Gerard Lesne and Il Seminario Musicale in France, Purcell Songs with the Purcell Quartet in Istanbul, Slovenia and Japan and songs by Byrd through to Elvis Costello with the viol consorts Fretwork and Concordia in Austria, Ireland and Slovenia.

Julia's operatic work has included the role of Romilda in Handel's Xerxes for the Operhaus Halle, Minerve, Amore and Giunone in Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria with Philippe Pierlot in a joint production with La Monnaie and the Kunsten Festival des Arts in Amsterdam, Salome in Stradella's San Giovanni Battista at the Innsbruck Festival, Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in the Cervantes Festival, Mexico, and the title role of Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea with the Purcell Quartet on tour in Japan.

Included in Julia's discography of more than twenty recordings are Bach's Magnificat and St Matthew Passion with the Gabrieli Consort/McCreesh for Deutsche Grammophon, Euridice in Monteverdi's Orfeo and Vivaldi's Dixit Dominus with the New London Consort/Pickett for L'Oiseau-Lyre, John Taverner's Sappho with the Academy of Ancient Music/Goodwin for Harmonia Mundi, Handel's Teseo in which she sang the role of Agilea with Les Musiciens du Louvre/Minkowski for Erato, Purcell's Odes for Queen Mary with The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Leonhardt for Virgin Classics, Linley and Boyce cantatas with the Parley of Instruments/Holman for Hyperion, Music from the time of Vermeer, songs by Constantijn Huygens and his musical circle with Chris Wilson and Carole Cerasi for Metronome.

Amongst Julia's performances in the last year were Handel's Gloria with London Baroque on tour in Germany, the roles of Galatea and Dido with the New London Consort in Hungary, Spain and Croatia, and a programme of Shakespearean songs with Musicians of the Globe in Mexico. As part of the BBC Proms 2005 she sang in Purcell's Faery Queen with the Gabrieli Consort, and in Canada and Finland she sang Charpentier's Leçons de Ténèbres.

Future plans include Dido in Paris and Vivaldi's Gloria with the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire in Nantes. She will sing Messagiera in Jonathan Miller's production of Monteverdi's Orfeo with Pickett/New London Consort in Spain, Poland, Scotland and the USA, Handel's Messiah in Miami and a programme of music from the 17th century for soprano and two cornetts in Barcelona.