Julia Grella O'Connell is the founder of the research-driven performance initiative the Risorgimento Project. She received her Doctor of Musical Arts degre from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 2009, and has served on the faculties of Hunter College and The City College of New York. In addition to her international concert appearances with the Risorgiomento Project, she has performed as a soloist with Syracuse Opera, Opera at Caramoor, and ConcertOpera Philadelphia. She is currently a member of the music faculty at Broome Community College of the State University of New York.
The Diana McVeagh Prize Committee commends Dr. O'Connell's interdisciplinary scholarship, which traverses visual art, literature, theology, and music with great skill, and is delivered in exceptionally refined and lucid prose. Through her focus on the trope of the 'fallen woman,' Dr. O'Connell demonstrates--among other things--how images involving Saint Cecilia or Mary Magdalen informed Victorian perceptions of music's moral agency. North American British Musical Studies Association, 2019 McVeagh Prize Committee