Julia Lagahuzère,
Named “Femme de Culture 2020”, Julia Lagahuzère is Co-founder and General Director of the non-profit organisation: Opera for Peace – Leading Young Voices of the World. This project is the largest international organization serving as a reference for young opera professionals around the values of diversity, equity, social justice, artistic excellence, affordable education and sustainability.
Working at the highest level, she was previously Deputy Casting Director of Opéra National de Paris in the two theatres of Opéra de Bastille and Palais Garnier. She is currently artistic consultant to the Queen Sonja International Music Competition in Oslo, Norway. Julia has a passion for finding and helping to nurture young talent, and established a concert series in order to strengthen relations between the QSMIC and the top international young artist programs; notably in collaboration with the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
She has previously worked at the San Francisco Opera, Scottish Opera and Opéra de Limoges. She is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and Sussex University, a musicology scholarship recipient at the University of California, Berkeley, and holds a Masters degree in Opera and Visual Performing Arts from King’s College London, in collaboration with the BBC Proms.
She is Founder of Circular Culture, an original and ambitious initiative linking Performing Arts with Circular Economy values and jury member to the world’s most important singing competitions, most recently at the International Vocal Competition of The Elena Obraztsova Foundation in Saint Petersburg, Opera Festival Scotland and Voices of South Africa.