Dr. Julia Nielsen has been one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s most sought-after vocal pedagogues since founding her private voice studio in 1999, and was just named 2024 Teacher of the Year by the National Association of Teachers of Singing (Cal-Western Region). Her students are currently performing leading roles with major opera companies, soloing with symphonies, and raising their voices in elite professional choruses across the United States. Many of Dr. Nielsen’s students can be heard with the San Francisco Opera Chorus, the Grammy-winning San Francisco Symphony Chorus, and the Philharmonia Baroque Chorale. She was the Guest Artist and Featured Teacher at the 2020 Cal-Western NATS Conference (National Association of Teachers of Singing), and is a frequent guest clinician for choruses throughout the U.S. From 1999 to 2014, Dr. Nielsen was also on the voice faculty of the award-winning San Francisco Girls Chorus, teaching young women at the chorus’s professional level.

Dr. Nielsen has had the privilege of studying voice with several world-famous operatic performers, including Metropolitan Opera legends Martina Arroyo, Margaret Harshaw, Blanche Thebom, and Giorgio Tozzi. However, she attributes her expertise in teaching voice to her own current teacher and mentor, David Jones. Through her intensive apprenticeship with this extraordinary technician since 2006, her teaching continues the traditions of a Swedish-Italian lineage.

Dr. Nielsen graduated from Indiana University with a Doctor of Music degree in Voice under Martina Arroyo and a Masters Degree under Margaret Harshaw. She earned her B.A. in Music from Stanford University, with distinction and with honors. She has also received training from, and works closely with, the Voice and Swallowing Center at the nationally ranked University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center.