About
Julia Metzmacher was born in Brussels as the daughter of the conductor Ingo Metzmacher and the artist and violist Suzsanne De Villiers. She grew up in Hamburg, where she received her first piano lessons at the age of 5 and her first
viola lessons at the age of 8. In 2006 Julia moved to Cape Town/South Africa and graduated from the German International School there in 2011 with a German Abitur and the South African National Senior Certificate (NSC). Parallel to her graduation she was a junior student at the College of Music at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and studied piano with Francois du Toit and Albie van Skalkwyk.
In 2011 Julia went back to Europe, first studied French at the Sorbonne in Paris and at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat Freiburg and after semesters abroad in France and Italy she obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Romance Studies and Musicology in 2016.
Parallel to her varied education she received regular piano lessons from various teachers and professors such as Nathan Steinhagen, Tilman Krämer, Prof. Andreas Bach, Prof. Brigitta Wollenweber and Jacques Rouvier. From 2017 Julia studied Musical Eduacation and graduated in summer 2021. In addition to this she also studied Piano Performance with Prof. Nicholas Rimmer at the Freiburg University of Music. Julia worked as a student assistant at the University’s Opera School and regularly accompanied vocal as well instrumental classes. In December 2020 she was invited to the Orchestral Piano Audition at the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig and in February 2021 to the Strasbourg and Zurich Opera Studio auditions.
Julia is a federal prizewinner as a soloist of the Jugend Musiziert Competition in Germany and was a regular participant in the national Bach Competition for Young Pianists in Köthen. At the Cape Town Eisteddfods she won the Doris Lardner Award for “The most talented piano entrant 15&over”, as well as the “Gold Diploma for outstanding performance in the romantic”, and the “Modern/contemporary section”. Julia took part in the Hugo Lambrechts Concerto Festival and the Arts Cape Youth Music Competition in Cape Town where she performed the Mozart Piano Concerto in D minor in 2009. Over the years, Julia has received important musical impulses from numerous masterclasses, including Judy Chin, Jean Marc Luisada, Einar Steen-Nøkleberg, Tilman Krämer, Nina Tichmann, Brigitta Wollenweber, Jacques Rouvier, Hartmut Höll, and Hortense Cartier-Bresson.
Julia is a scholarship holder of the Live Music Now Foundation. She played numerous times with the Crescendo Orchestra Freiburg. Furthermore she took part in the “Liedcampus” at the Hochschule für Musik in September 2021 and performed works by Dora Pejacevic. Julia regularly performs as a orchestral pianist with the Freiburg Philharmonic and the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz. In December 2021 Julia performed Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Reutlingen University Orchestra.
In 2022 Julia was offered scholarships from both the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music London. Since September 2022 Julia has been studying Collaborative Piano (Master of Performance) at the Royal College with renowned professors such as Simon Lepper, Roger Vignloes, Kathron Sturrock, Richard Uttley and Niel Immelman. She successfully participated in Songfest this year at thr Blair school of Music where she performed in numerous concerts and participated in Masterclasses with Lydia Brown, Javier Arrebola, Lucy Fitz Gibbon, Libby Larsen and John Mosto, amongst others. Furthermore she participated in the Oxenfoord International Summer School and took lessons with Richard Stokes and Malcom Martineau. In addition to this Julia was accepted into the Deutsche Liedakademie Trossingen in which she had the chance to study with renowned collaborative pianists such as Anne le Bozec, Pauliina Tukiaien, Jan Phillip Schulze, Ulrich Eisenlohr and Prof. Burkhard Kehring. In September 2023 Julia was accepted onto the BBCSO scheme in which she will attend, listen to and play in rehearsals of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London.
She has currently been accepted into the Artist Diploma Program of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she will continue her studies in the field of Collaborarive piano.
