Biography
Julia Sanjurjo is a singer, improviser, composer, and arranger from Mar del Plata, Argentina, based in Cologne (Germany).
Her work focuses on contemporary, jazz, argentinian and experimental music, combining composition, improvisation, text, and multimedia performance.
Her artistic practice is shaped by an active local and international network of collaborators, working with musicians from across Europe and the Americas.
She has also developed projects and research in institutions dedicated to contemporary music such as IRCAM in Paris and the HfMT in Hamburg.
She is a member of KROM (Kollektiv für rhythmische offene Musik) together with Félix Hauptmann, Roger Kintopf, Kirke Karja, Fabian Dudek, Viktor Fox and Tizia Zimmerman.
As a bandleader, she released her debut album Retrato in 2018 and co-founded the ensemble Simona in 2021, a project dedicated to reinterpreting the music of Venezuelan composer Simón Díaz.
In 2026 she premiered SKELETON, a large ensemble performing music and texts of her own authorship.
Moreover, she was selected for the international composition competition “Ad Libitum” (2026/27), organized by the Winfried Böhler Kultur Stiftung in Baden-Württemberg, focused on creating contemporary works for youth ensembles and collaborating with emerging performers.
Currently she leads the Paul Motian Songbook, a project featuring original lyrics she wrote for compositions by the iconic jazz drummer Paul Motian.
She studied at the National University of Arts in Argentina, the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, and the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, and has received scholarships from the National Arts Fund of Arts – Argentina (FNA), the Mozarteum Argentino, the Deutschlandstipendium and the Kulturstiftung NRW.