Julie Coulson

Lecturer in Musicology/ Vocal Coach and Accompanist
Chair of NZSM Scholarships Committee

MMus (Auck.), BA (Cant.), DipTch.(Dist) (Cant.), LRSM, LTCL

Julie Coulson teaches classical theory, vocal accompaniment, music studies, and supervises research in music pedagogy and performance studies.

Julie Coulson performs nationally and internationally as a vocal accompanist, adjudicator at competitions, and presenter of masterclasses for young musicians. Since 1990 she has been a faculty accompanist at the National Singing School and both a presenter and accompanist for the New Zealand Association of Teachers of Singing (NEWZATS). Her specialist area is French mélodie, arising from interdisciplinary studies which set French Symbolism in context, particularly the interface between belief, poetry and music. She has also premiered and recorded a number of New Zealand compositions for solo and combined voices.

Julie Coulson’s early musicological research investigated the development of keyboard technique and notation 1600-1820, and subsequently the artwork on period harpsichords. She then combined her experiences as secondary school teacher, Composer-in-Schools, and studio music teacher to provide research into collaborative youth music, in particular chamber music and accompanying. Presentations include Funner than Orchestra, Anyone Can Do It: Youth Chamber Music in New Zealand and Talking as well as Playing: Chamber Music and the Education of Adolescent Students, a conference paper for the 27th World Conference of the International Society for Music Education, 2006. Further research has examined the role of the voice from a music therapy perspective. Her published articles Am I My Voice?: Communication, Speech, and Music Therapy (2004), and The Important Thing is to Communicate (2006) have enjoyed wide readership.

In September 2010 Julie Coulson will travel to the UK for a 10-day programme on Strauss and Wolf Lieder and in October will present Building Mutual Trust: from power struggle to power partnership, a paper on teaching music to children with dyspraxia, at the 5th National Dyspraxia Conference in Christchurch.

A significant project in the planning is New Zealand’s inaugural conference for accompanists and associate artists scheduled for 2012. Support for this venture has led to an invitation to present a paper on the specialist art of choral accompaniment at the first New Zealand Directors’ Convention in January 2011.

Contact details
Room: 106, 92 Fairlie Tce
Phone: 463 9789
Email: julie.coulson@nzsm.ac.nz

Feedback | © 2007 NZSM | Last Updated: December 7, 2007