Julia grew up in Aachen, Germany, and started playing the oboe at the age of 12. In her last year of high school she started studying with Prof. Marc Schaeferdieck in Aachen before moving to Freiburg and Prof. Hans Elhorst, where in 2010 she successfully completed her bachelor degree. During that time she also participated in an exchange programme with the Sibelius Academy Helsinki, Finland, being taught there by Jorma Valjakka.
In 2013 Julia was awarded her Master of Performance with Prof. Emanuel Abbühl in Basel, Switzerland. She is continuing her studies there until 2015, studying for a Master of Specialized Performance (Soloist).
Julia has gained extensive experience in orchestras, ensembles and masterclasses throughout the world. During a 6-month stay as a teenager in Dunedin, New Zealand, she played in the Southern Sinfonia and other small orchestras. Further credits include playing with Camerata Bern, Orchestre Symphonique du Jura, Basel Sinfonietta, 21st Century Orchestra as well as the Rochford Ensemble, Freiburger Bachorchester and Junge Bläserphilharmonie NRW. Julia has also performed as a soloist with Neues Zürcher Orchester and Freiburger Bachcollegium.
During masterclasses, Julia has worked with great oboists including Jaques Tys, Christian Hommel, Christian Wetzel, Burkhardt Glätzner and Maurice Bourgue.
In 2013, Julia won the Anerkennungspreis ex aequo by Basler Orchestergesellschaft. With the wind quintet „ensemble pentaton“ she won second prize in the 2012 Orpheus Chamber Music competition. She also won several prizes as a teenager in the German competition Jugend musiziert.
Julia is very fond of English Literature (including Tolkien and Rowling as well as Shakespeare, Doyle and Austen) and also greatly enjoys nature during her free time, traveling, and getting to know other cultures.
If you could play another instrument, what would it be and why?
I would love to play French horn! I know that it’s one of the most difficult instruments (alongside oboe), but the sound is just so incredibly unique and touching. My favourite parts of symphonies almost without exception involve horns. All the powerful, heroic, big emotional sections of a symphony are resting upon the shoulders of four or more horn players, aren’t they? I sometimes envy them for that.
If you weren’t a musician, what would you be?
Since I was a little girl I dreamt of becoming a writer. I am not sure if I could ever have become that, but that wish is still inside of me. There are of course a number of possibilities how life could have turned out if I hadn’t chosen the oboe, or if I had studied medicine, or languages, or just gone off to explore the world, but I think that dream would never have disappeared.