Julie Dwyer, 17, a junior at Chantilly High School, was recently accepted by audition to the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music Summer Rising Star Program for College Students.
As a junior, Julie was the only high school student admitted to this college-level program. The program will be given by faculty by the renown Cincinnati Conservatory of Music (CCM), consistently rated among the top three music schools in the country. The Cincinnati Conservatory of Music summer program will include intensive work on music and audition skills for obtaining roles in productions. Julie will be leaving for the two-week program on June 15.
Earlier this year, Julie was selected from 40 auditioned soprano District XII Choir members to be the District Soprano Soloist for the District XII Choir Festival. A month later, she was selected by audition for the All-Virginia State Choir, where she was later selected by audition to be the All-Virginia State Soprano Soloist to sing the solo in that festival.
Last year, as a sophomore, Julie won first place in the Regional James Bland Music Competition, competing against seven high school seniors who were also winners from different areas of Virginia. She earned the opportunity to compete at the Regional Bland Vocal Competition by winning at the local level sponsored by the Annandale Lions Club. She performed an aria in Italian entitled "Batti, Batti, o Bel Masetto" from Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni." At this Regional Bland Competition she won a scholarship awarded for first place that she will apply to her future music education. Earlier that year, Julie was selected by audition for the Capital City Opera's performance of "Hansel and Gretel." Julie was also selected by audition, both this year and last year to perform as a singer-dancer in the Cappies High School Drama Awards Ceremony to be held at The Kennedy Center in early June.
As both a rising freshman and a rising sophomore, Julie was selected by audition as the youngest vocalist to study vocal performance at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music Summer Academy Program. This program was taught by Conservatory professors and required memorization of at least eight classical art songs or operatic arias in four languages to perform in master classes and recitals. Previous summers, Julie has also attended the Westminster Choir College Musical Theater Program in Princeton, NJ, the Music Technology Workshop at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, and the two-week Vocal Music Program at the North Carolina School for the Arts.
This summer, in addition to the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music Program, Julie will apply previously awarded music scholarship money to attend a Music Composition Program at Berklee College and a Performing Arts Workshop at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
At Chantilly High, Julie is a member of the National Honor Society, French Honor Society, has earned a 4.0 as both a freshman and sophomore and as a junior currently has a 4.1 GPA with AP classes. She has been in Chantilly High School's selective Touch of Class Show Choir as a freshman, sophomore and junior.
To further her training, Julie also takes private voice instruction, piano lessons and dance classes. She hopes to study music at a college conservatory of music and perform professionally someday.
She is the daughter of Kevin and Jeanie Dwyer and has two brothers — Matthew, 20, and Colin, 13.