Julie Mitchell is an alumni graduate student of Georgia Southern University, receiving her M.M. in Composition. She is also an alumni of Kennesaw State University, receiving both her B.A. in Music (Composition) and her B.M. in Music Education (Choral Concentration).
Julie studied with Assistant Professor of Composition and Music Theory, Martin Gendelman at GSU and began her Master's Degree in fall of 2016. She is the former chorus teacher at Statesboro High School and the upcoming chorus teacher at Windsor Forest High School. Her compositional debut in Statesboro occurred in fall of 2016 during the ArgUs 2016 New Music International Collaboration Project at Georgia Southern with her chamber orchestra piece, CheckMate.
As a high school student, she was highly involved in performances outside of school, including All State Chorus, District Honor Chorus, and Governor’s Honors Program.
While pursuing her undergraduate degree, Julie was an active participant in KSU’s performance ensembles, including KSU’s Chamber Singers, Opera Theater, and Jazz Combos. Upon her entrance to KSU in 2010, she was chosen to be in the elite choir. During her time at KSU, she worked with Composer-in-Residence, Dr. Laurence Sherr and studied voice with mezzo-soprano, Valerie Walters. Since then, she has continued to pursue performance opportunities. She also has acquired a vast amount of teaching experience through her work as a Student Assistant and Lab Assistant at KSU, along with the semester she spent student teaching in Cobb County public schools.
Her compositional debut at KSU occurred in 2011 during the Festival of New Music with her SSA piece, Je T’adore pour Éternité. In this recital, she was both the only female composer from KSU and the youngest student. In fall of 2013, she was the winner of KSU’s Concerto Competition, having the opportunity to hear her piece performed by KSU’s Chamber Singers for their 2014 Spring Concert, under the direction of Dr. Leslie Blackwell. For the KSU Student Composition Recital held on April 14th, 2015, she premiered her 6-movement cantata entitled Psalm 139. This was the largest student-led work to be featured at Kennesaw State University, including an ensemble of approximately 70 performers.
On April 29th, 2018, she held her graduate recital, including her commissioned work for the Georgia Southern Chorale under the direction of Dr. Shannon Jeffreys, We Will Not Be Broken, text written by Julie's sister, Jordan N. Jordan.
In the spring of 2016, she received Honorable Mention for the Treefalls & SPO Call for Scores with her piece for brass quintet, Vérfürdő, and was recognized on their March 4th concert in Spartanburg, SC, along with her participation with 6 other composers at the Composer Roundtable Discussion at Upstate University of South Carolina. In spring of 2016, she was selected as an alternate composer in the 24-Hour Opera Project, presented by the Atlanta Opera. In the summer of 2016, her SATB piece, Sonnet 116, was chosen 1 of 4 as part of the Vox Nova Chorale Call for Scores for Emerging Women Composers, out of 94 submissions. The piece was premiered during the group's Celebrating Great Composers (Who Happen to be Women) concert at St. Mary's Chapel in St. Paul, Minnesota on the St. Paul Seminary Campus.
On January 13th, 2017, she was selected as Society of Composers, Inc.'s Member of the Day. She was selected as a participant of the 2017 Charlotte New Music Festival and Composers Workshop. Her works, All's Well That Ends Well for flute and dizi and Phantasm for violin and cello were premiered by Duo Zonda (Orlando Cela, dizi, Wei Zhao, flute) and Beo String Quartet respectively during the workshop. This summer, she was selected as a Composer Resident during the CORO Institute for Choral Composers.
She is working on a number of large projects and hopes to premiere them through the progression of her studies and career.