51±¬ÁÏÍø

Dr. Julie Celona-VanGorden is an award-winning lyric coloratura soprano originally from upstate New York. She earned her both the Doctorate of Musical Arts and Master of Music in Vocal Performance at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and completed her undergraduate work at the State University of New York at Fredonia.  During her doctoral work, she concentrated heavily in vocal health and pedagogy and attended the Summer Vocology Institute in Denver, Colorado and is a certified vocologist. 

A member of the voice faculty at 51±¬ÁÏÍø for 23 years Dr. Celona-VanGorden teaches a variety of students including music performance, education, music production and recording, and musical theatre majors. She has also taught both undergraduate and graduate performance majors as well as PopTech majors at UNC Greensboro.  Specializing in cross-training technique, Dr. Celona-VanGorden has helped singers develop and hone their vocal and artistic technique and developed and taught advanced university curricula in vocal pedagogy and literature. Her deep expertise spans Classical, Musical Theater, and CCM styles. Dr. Celona-VanGorden’s students consistently perform at the highest levels and are regularly hired worldwide; her roster includes performers on and off Broadway (Incl:How to Dance in Ohio, Great Gatsby, Newsies, A Bronx Tale), with national touring theater companies (Incl: Tommy, Boop, Shucked, Kinky Boots, Annie, White Christmas, Dirty Dancing, A Chorus Line), and at prestigious regional venues including the Paper Mill Playhouse, The Argyle Theatre, and the New London Barn Playhouse. 

As an active performer, her stage experience spans opera and oratorio, and her interest in art-song has led to a lifetime of recitals and an extensive knowledge of art-song repertoire with special interests in American Women composers as well as Spanish Art-Song.  Additionally she gives master-classes and workshops regionally and is the soprano soloist at First Presbyterian Church, Greensboro.