Dr. JÚLIA COELHO
('Pronounced: 'ʒu.li.ʌ ku.'ʌ.ʎu)
Scholar-Performer-Educator
Music History / Musicology
Vocal Performance (Soprano)
PhilosMelodia: The Singing Harp
Vocalist - Live Performances
Accompaniment at the Gothic Harp, Psaltery, Keyboard
BIO
Dr. Júlia Coelho (D.M.A.) comes from Portugal and currently lives in Denton (Texas). Previously, she worked and studied for several years in Italy and then Missouri. As a scholar-performer-educator, she is active in research and publication, performance, music and poetry writing, as well as teaching. Although her performance and research speciality has a focus in Early Music, she also embraces several other music genres, from Fine Arts New Music to Jazz standards, Bossa Nova (with the DFW ensemble "Ramo de Oliveira"), Portuguese Folk and Fado music, as well as traditional Jewish Sephardi repertoire.
Dr. Coelho currently works as a Musicology Adjunct Faculty at the University of North Texas at Frisco, and as a Teaching Fellow at the University of North Texas in the Music History area. In addition, she performs regularly at a variety of musical events through PhilosMelodia: The Singing Harp, and DUUF as Hymn Leader and Musician, often accompanying her singing with the Gothic harp, psaltery, piano, lyre, or keyboard.
Besides her music and research-related activities, she writes poetry in Portuguese from the age of 9, now writing also in Italian, French, and English languages. She published an original book of poetry called Fragmentos de Infinito (2017; see publications section).
Dr. Coelho holds a D.M.A. in Vocal Performance (Minor in Music Theory) from UNT, as well as three music-related Masters’ degrees (Musicology, Opera, and Vocal Performance) and a BA in Philosophy (minor in Foreign Languages), completed in the US (MU), Italy (Conservatory D. Cimarosa), and Portugal (FLUL). She is currently finishing a second doctoral degree, a Ph.D. Musicology (AbD, with a related field in Early Music). Her PhD dissertation and current larger research project is entitled "Representations of Disability in Seventeenth-Century Venetian Opera," while her DMA dissertation consisted in completing a vocal-piano score edition of unedited Sacred work by 18th-century composer Marcos Portugal.
As a scholar / researcher / writer, she has publications in English, Portuguese, and Italian in Music History, Music Theory, and Philosophy (see publications section). She has presented papers at regional, national, and international conferences on Monteverdi and Mozart in the U.S. and in Europe, as well as several lecture-recitals and invited talks on Thomas Campion, Portuguese history and music, Protest Music, and Music and Disability.
(See CV for detailed information on education, publications, conferences, and professional experience).
As a soprano (primary instrument), Dr. Coelho performs regularly in a variety of musical contexts and events, from formal concerts to recitals, weddings, services, etc. She records music professionally on a regularly basis (including being featured in 3 albums so far, plus 3 upcoming albums), has performed in several operas and chamber music concerts in the U.S. and in Europe, and has won several performance awards at national and international competitions.
(See Resumé for more information on performance experience and the Music section on this website).
As an educator, Dr. Coelho has over a decade of teaching experience in applied music, music history, music theory, and languages. At the University of North Texas, Dallas, she teaches Music Appreciation / American Music classes, while also working as a Teaching Fellow in the Music History area at the University of North Texas, Denton. In the Summer, she works as an instructor for pre-college classes at UNT, namely the courses "Music in Culture and Society," "introduction to Philosophy," "Popular Music," "Music Appreciation," "Italian as a Foreign Language," and "European Portuguese Language and Culture."
In addition to her university teaching duties, she teaches private lessons in voice, piano, and composition (ages 2-70+), as well as group classes on musical theater and early childhood education (ages 2-12).
Prior to her work in music, she studied Philosophy and Foreign Languages, teaching, translating, and researching in these two areas--a work that she continues today, extending it now to translation and research in musicology and music theory topics. She completed her Undergraduate degree in Lisbon (Portugal) and finished her last year in Salerno, Italy (2010). It was there that she began her music studies as a Fine Arts singer, continuing her academic and professional endeavors in music performance, research, and teaching in the U.S. after 2014.
EDUCATION
2024, DMA Vocal Performance; Music Theory related field
University of North Texas (UNT), Denton, Texas
2025 (exp.), Ph.D. Musicology (AbD); Early Music related field
University of North Texas (UNT), Denton, Texas
2018, M. A. Musicology
University of Missouri (MU), Columbia Missouri;
2017, M. M. Vocal Performance
University of Missouri (MU), Columbia MO
2013, Master’s in Canto Lirico/Opera; minor: Music History
Conservatorio Domenico Cimarosa, Avellino, Italy
2010, B. A. Philosophy; minor: Foreign Languages
Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa (FLUL), Portugal
Università di Salerno, Italy – ERASMUS (2009–2010)
PUBLICATIONS
Academic Publications
2022, Book Chapter:
“The Art of Liminality,” The Liminal Loop, ed. Timothy Carson. Cambridge: Lutterworth Press, 2021.
2021, Article:
“Joachim Burmeister, Wolfgang Schonsleder, and Christoph Bernhard: Theory or Theories of Musical-
Rhetorical Figures?” Harmonia, Vol. 18 (exp.) Denton, TX: University of North Texas, 2021
2019, Article:
Coelho, Júlia. “Claudio Monteverdi e La Favola d’Orfeo: Character Construction and Depiction of Emotion.” International Conference–The Making of a Genius: Claudio Monteverdi from Cremona to Mantua (June 7–10, 2017), Journal Philomusica On-line (Under Review)
2018, Book translation, Italian to English:
Cerone, Pietro, and Wolfgang Schonsleder. Musical Interpretation of Text in Vocal Polyphony, ed. Massimo Di Sandro, trans. Júlia Coelho. Avellino:Pasitea
2015, Book chapter, annotated translation, English to Italian:
Burney, Charles, and John Brown. Händel: il Messiah: analisi e critica di un classico, ed. Massimo Di Sandro, translation with commentary by Júlia Coelho, Massimo Di Sandro, and Pietro Sgueglia. Avellino: Pasitea, 2015
2010, Book review:
Coelho, Júlia, Review of Reflections on Gender and Science by Evelyn Fox Keller, in Philosophica. Lisboa: Departamento de Filosofia, Faculdade de Letras, 35, 2010, pp. 204–12
Non-Academic Publications
2017, Poetry book:
Coelho, Júlia. Fragmentos de Infinito, drawings by Gabriel Coelho. Lisbon: Maria Graça Melo (original poetry in Portuguese)
2017, Bilingual poem publication:
Coelho, Júlia. “Sfuggite ore,” in Namorar é preciso. Lisbon: Maria Graça Melo (Original poem in Italian, written and translated by the author to Portuguese)
2005–2006, Critical, creative, and poetry writing
In local newspaper Ecos de Grândola (Grândola, Portugal; monthly contribution)
1997, Poem publication:
Coelho, Júlia. “Quando eu era,” Ecos de Grândola (Grândola, Portugal)