Adolphe’s music is described as “alive with invention” (The New Yorker), “colorful, mercurial, deftly orchestrated” (The New York Times) displaying “a remarkable gift for sustaining a compelling musical narrative” (Musical America). Her works are performed internationally by renowned ensembles such as the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the Boston, Cincinnati, and BBC Symphony Orchestras, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Orchestre Métropolitain, Minnesota Orchestra, Colorado Symphony, the Sitkovetsky Trio, the Norwegian and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestras, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, soprano Hila Plitmann, and pianist Gloria Cheng, among others. Adolphe’s awards include a Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, an OPERA America Discovery Grant, an ASCAP Young Composer Award, and a Charles Ives Scholarship from the Academy of Arts and Letters.
Upcoming projects include We the Living, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic to commemorate the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the September 11th attacks, with libretto by Safiya Sinclair. The work premieres on 9/11 at the World Trade Center’s Perelman Performing Arts Center. Adolphe continues her longtime collaboration with internationally bestselling author Safiya Sinclair in a new work for Trio Afiori, an ensemble comprised of principal clarinetist of the NY Philharmonic Anthony McGill, Grammy Award winning mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron, and Steinway Artist pianist Gloria Chien. In 2027, the composer/librettist team will be creating an evening length choral work, to be announced.
Recent notable performances include the 2025 premiere of Adolphe’s cello concerto, Chrysalis, commissioned by the LA Philharmonic for Seth Parker Woods, and performances of her orchestral work Underneath the Sheen at the New York Philharmonic’s 2026 debut at Radio City Music Hall, with Sweeden’s Malmo Symphony Orchestra, Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra, Sarasota Orchestra, and Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. In 2023, Adolphe’s orchestral work, Makeshift Castle, co-commissioned by the Boston Symphony and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, received its UK premiere at the BBC Proms and performances at the Berlin Philharmonie and Tanglewood. The Boston Globe described the work as possessing “dramatic clarity…with resourcefully orchestrated music that keeps the ear engaged.” 2023 also brought premieres of Adolphe’s chorus and orchestra piece, Crown of Hummingbirds, a collaboration with Safiya Sinclair and commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, as well as performances of her piano trio Etched in Smoke and Light, commissioned by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, The Soraya, and Arizona Friends of Chamber Music for the Sitkovetsky Trio.
Passionate about de-stigmatizing mental illness and dispelling the myth of the tortured artist, Adolphe is the creator and host of the podcast LooseLeaf NoteBook. Produced in partnership with New Music USA, LooseLeaf NoteBook uncovers the connection between creativity and mental health, with a focus on nurturing artistry, emotional intelligence, and self-care. Adolphe shares her creative process, personal experience with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and journey towards mental health alongside guests from across creative fields to provide inspiration, a space for open dialogue, and paths towards healing through artistic self-expression. In a profile on LooseLeaf NoteBook in the Boston Globe, composer Andrew Norman said: “I think what Julia and a few other composers like her have done is really brave and extraordinary – to say, ‘No, we need to be having these conversations, and it’s OK to talk about them in public.'” In 2023, Adolphe studied the connections between the therapeutic and creative processes at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute as an Ecker Fellow.
A native New Yorker living in Nashville, Adolphe holds a Masters of Music degree in music composition from the USC Thornton School of Music and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University, where she studied with Steven Stucky and Stephen Hartke.
Photo Credit: Stephen Busken