Juliet Schlefer is a Brooklyn-born, Brooklyn-based lyric soprano singing oratorio, chamber music, opera and art song with repertoire ranging from the baroque to the avant-garde. In 2025 she was a Young Concert Artists semi-finalist, the first-place winner of the Chicago-based Musicians Club of Women competition, and a summer vocal fellow at both the Toronto Summer Music Festival and New Music on the Point. In October she returned to The Washington Chorus at the Strathmore Center in Bethesda as the soprano soloist in Bach’s Magnificat and Reena Esmail’s This Love Between Us following her appearance with the chorus in June 2024, in Buenos Aires’ CCK, as the soprano soloist in Mendelssohn’s Elijah alongside acclaimed baritone, Will Liverman. Additional 2025 concerts included chamber music in NYC with Composers Concordance and Kyo-Shin-An Arts, recital performances in Philadelphia and Kansas City, and a Messiah at Music in the Nave in Kent, CT.

Juliet received her 2024 Masters of Music degree from the University of Michigan along with the Earl V. Moore Award for Artistic Achievement. Opera roles at UMich included as Aveline Mortimer in the March 2024 production of Elizabeth Cree by Kevin Puts, directed by Gregory Keller and Kirk Severtson and her Power Center debut in November 2022 as the vixen Bystrouška, in Leoš Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, directed by Tara Faircloth and Kirk Severtson. Juliet also had a leading role in the workshop premiere of Tom Cipullo’s opera, Hobson’s Choice and was cast as Adele in the University of Michigan’s, 2020 production of Die Fledermaus, directed by Grant Preisser.

Additional UMich highlights included Haydn’s Theresienmesse, Philip Glass’ Music in 12 Parts, Mahler’s Symphony Nos. 2 and 4, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, performances as a featured soloist on David Lang’s UM Penny Stamps Distinguished Lecturer Series about his opera prisoner of the state, and Steve Reich’s Tehillim with the University’s Contemporary Directions Ensemble. An avid recitalist, Juliet’s extensive collaborative performances have featured a wide body of diverse repertoire with recent highlights including favorite works by Messiaen, Saariaho, Undine Smith-Moore, Cecelia Livingston, Barber, Dvorak, Poulenc, Strauss, Rachmaninoff, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, a lot of new music and plenty in between.

In previous summers, Juliet was a 2023 Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center under the direction of Dawn Upshaw. In 2022 she was a Music Academy of the West Studio Artist, joining the company chorus in Eugene Onegin and in summer 2021, she returned to Opera Neo to perform the role of Barbarina and cover Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro. Previously with Opera Neo, in 2019, 2020 and 2021, Juliet appeared as the First Spirit in Neo’s fully filmed, edited, and green-screened production of Die Zauberflöte. Additional festivals included The Collaborative Piano Institute, Mostly Modern Festival, SongFest, and the Brancaleoni International Music Festival.

Juliet has an early background in both choral music and musical theater. She was a member of the prestigious Brooklyn Youth Chorus Concert Choir for six years. During her time there, she was a performer and soloist in the premiere and recording of Black Mountain Songs, curated by Bryce Dessner and Richard Reed Parry, featuring works by composers including Caroline Shaw, Nico Muhly, John King, and Aleksandra Vrebelov at the BAM 2014 Next Wave Festival. She appeared in the premiere of AM I BORN by David T. Little, It’s Motion Keeps by Caroline Shaw and original workshops of Paola Prestini’s The Aging Magician with the Prototype Festival. Featured musical theater roles included Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! and Cinderella in Into the Woods. Juliet has also appeared in two movies, First Reformed, and Change in the Air.