Julianne Baird

Julianne Baird (born December 10, 1952 in Statesville, North Carolina) is an American soprano best known for her singing in Baroque works, in both opera and sacred music. She has nearly 100 recordings to her credit and is a well-traveled recitalist and soloist with major symphony orchestras. She is also a noted teacher of voice. Baird grew up in Kent, Ohio, graduating from Kent's Theodore Roosevelt High School in 1970. She studied voice and musicology at the Eastman School of Music, earned a Diploma in Performance Practice from the Salzburg Mozarteum, and earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in music history from Stanford University. Baird is a distinguished professor at Rutgers University-Camden where she directs a Madrigal Ensemble and teaches Music History, specifically Ancient Music, Renaissance Music and Baroque Music. She frequently teaches master classes and workshops throughout the United States. She published an annotated translation of the 18th-century treatise, Introduction to the Art of Singing by Johann Friedrich Agricola (Cambridge University Press,1995). As a performer, she is best known for performances of music by Johann Sebastian Bach (especially the B-minor Mass, the Magnificat, and a number of cantatas) and George Frideric Handel (especially Messiah). She has recorded a number of less well-known Handel operas (including Deidamia, Siroe, Muzio Scevola, Sosarme, and Berenice). She has also sung works by Henry Purcell, John Dowland, Claudio Monteverdi, and Georg Philipp Telemann. Modern American composers whose music she has performed include Lukas Foss and Steve Reich.