:: biography
julie flanders :: in brief
Julie Flanders is a powerful writer and performer whose spiritual themes, passionate craft and hypnotic presence resonate throughout her work in music, theater and poetry.
She is also a gifted healer and teacher who helps other people elicit and manifest the miracles of their own power and creativity.
julie flanders :: at length
—by A. Rooney
Julie Flanders is an extraordinary artist and person.
If you ask her, she will say her “primary instrument” is language. But if you meet her, you will realize she is charged with a remarkable magical energy that radiates from her both physically and emotionally.
Unusually tall and lithe, Julie would be hard to miss in a crowd. Her bright, delicate skin and dark hair are an interesting frame for her large, penetrating eyes, which sparkle with both humor and sensitivity.
On stage she is incredibly charismatic—charming, magnetic and at home in her skin. She exudes passion and has often been described as “hypnotic” and “mesmerizing”—words that make even more sense when you realize that Julie is a professionally trained hypnotist.
What makes her riveting on stage—both in her improvisational theater performances, where she “channels” unique and compelling characters, and in her written work, like Living in Pieces, her one-woman show—is her authenticity. She is always rooted in her own humanity and spirit.
Even during her musical concerts, where she performs the songs she writes with composer Emil Adler, she is often joyously improvisational—a satisfying counterpoint to the beautiful melancholy of their music.
Julie is a natural-born storyteller—her humor, compassion and dimensionality making her a complete original and a refreshing surprise.
____________________
Julie grew up with four brothers, three dogs, two parents and a cat, in a suburban family that was exuberantly athletic and intellectually bright. Her father was a political journalist for WCBS NewsRadio88 in New York and her mother was a political historian who shelved her career ambitions to become a full-time mother of five.
As a child Julie told stories, wrote poems and rhymed words from the moment she could speak. She was also highly intuitive as a child, a trait she shared with her grandmother, mother and aunt, and which has served her well in her healing practice.
Julie studied classical piano for twelve years, ran track and field in middle school, and went to a performing arts high school. After completing a B.A. in English Literature at Yale University (which she attended on a music scholarship), she moved to New York to become a writer and a performer.
____________________
While completing an intensive two-year Meisner program in acting, she created the band, October Project, with composer Emil Adler and a group of friends. Originally Julie did not perform with the band, but wrote all the lyrics—infusing the group with the rich, dark mysticism that floats around all her projects.
October Project was quickly signed to Epic Records and recorded two critically acclaimed albums, October Project (1993) and Falling Farther In (1995), which have influenced a decade’s worth of “spiritual” musicians, including Evanescence and Sufjan Stevens, to name but two.
Touring the US and Europe both as a headliner and as an opener for such artists as Sarah McLachlan and the Crash Test Dummies, the band developed a loving and loyal audience. October Project appeared on Late Night With Conan O’Brien, VH1 and MTV, and its recordings have been used on TV (Baywatch, One Life To Live, E-xtra, The Real World) and in feature films (Blown Away, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Jeff Bridges).
Originally fronted by the remarkable singer, Mary Fahl, whose unique alto sent shivers through the music industry, October Project was reformed several years ago around Marina Belica, formerly the band’s harmony singer. Music journalists have described Marina’s shimmering instrument as “flawless and angelic.” Dave Sabatino and Urbano Sanchez, the band’s other original members, still perform with the group at their pleasure.
In addition to fronting her own solo project, Julie now sings harmonies for October Project. Her amazing vocal chemistry with Marina has led reviewers to describe them as “a kinder, gentler Heart.”
In 2001 the now-independent October Project released a CD titled, Different Eyes, containing six songs that had been in OP’s “trunk.” It sold so remarkably well from the band’s website that they were inspired to continue their efforts outside the major label machine. The new OP has performed dozens of concerts since then and intends to finish a long-delayed, full-length album before year’s end.
____________________
Julie is also the lyricist for the independent recording artist, Sylvia Tosun, who writes much of her music with Emil Adler.
Julie penned the words for Sylvia’s debut CD, Too Close to the Sun, and for ten songs on her full-length, award-winning album, Jump In, whose critical and commercial acclaim represents an extraordinary success for an independent artist. The concert video of the album (entitled, Venus) will be available soon.
Songs from Jump In have been featured on TV (Dawson’s Creek, Beautiful People and the season finale of The “L” Word) and in a number of independent films.
In 2006 a remix of the Flanders & Tosun song, “Sleepless,” climbed to #8 on the Billboard charts and has been heard in clubs all over the country. The songs they have written together have garnered Tosun the Abe Olman Award for Excellence in Songwriting and two awards in the USA Songwriting Competition.
____________________
In addition to writing lyrics, Julie is also a poet, which she sees as an essentially different art form than lyric writing:
____________________
Julie has also worked in the theater in New York as a playwright and performer.
Her original solo work has been seen at such venues as PS122, The John Houseman Theater, The Kitchen, DTW, HERE, Circumarts, EST and elsewhere. Her one-woman show, Living in Pieces, was performed to great acclaim off-Broadway and then re-staged by the Titans Theater Company as full cast piece, receiving one of the largest grants ever bestowed by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
Her short play, The Corporation, has been performed in several NYC theaters and was accepted to the New York Fringe Festival.
____________________
Finally, Julie is a gifted healer.
She is an inspired creative guide, a trained hypnotherapist and an NLP practitioner. Clients in her private practice have included Academy Award winners, New York Time best-selling authors, performers from Broadway, Off-Broadway, The Metropolitan Opera, The American Ballet Theatre, The New York City Ballet and TV, as well as creative people and entrepreneurs in all walks of life.
Selected by Time Out Magazine as “one of New York’s top practitioners,” Julie is a powerful teacher who brings out what is best and most extraordinary in her clients. She has taught and performed at The Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY and The Crossings in Austin, TX.
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Julie Flanders is a powerful writer and performer whose spiritual themes, passionate craft and hypnotic presence resonate throughout her work in music, theater and poetry.
She is also a gifted healer and teacher who helps other people elicit and manifest the miracles of their own power and creativity.
julie flanders :: at length
—by A. Rooney
Julie Flanders is an extraordinary artist and person.
If you ask her, she will say her “primary instrument” is language. But if you meet her, you will realize she is charged with a remarkable magical energy that radiates from her both physically and emotionally.
Unusually tall and lithe, Julie would be hard to miss in a crowd. Her bright, delicate skin and dark hair are an interesting frame for her large, penetrating eyes, which sparkle with both humor and sensitivity.
On stage she is incredibly charismatic—charming, magnetic and at home in her skin. She exudes passion and has often been described as “hypnotic” and “mesmerizing”—words that make even more sense when you realize that Julie is a professionally trained hypnotist.
What makes her riveting on stage—both in her improvisational theater performances, where she “channels” unique and compelling characters, and in her written work, like Living in Pieces, her one-woman show—is her authenticity. She is always rooted in her own humanity and spirit.
Even during her musical concerts, where she performs the songs she writes with composer Emil Adler, she is often joyously improvisational—a satisfying counterpoint to the beautiful melancholy of their music.
Julie is a natural-born storyteller—her humor, compassion and dimensionality making her a complete original and a refreshing surprise.
____________________
Julie grew up with four brothers, three dogs, two parents and a cat, in a suburban family that was exuberantly athletic and intellectually bright. Her father was a political journalist for WCBS NewsRadio88 in New York and her mother was a political historian who shelved her career ambitions to become a full-time mother of five.
As a child Julie told stories, wrote poems and rhymed words from the moment she could speak. She was also highly intuitive as a child, a trait she shared with her grandmother, mother and aunt, and which has served her well in her healing practice.
Julie studied classical piano for twelve years, ran track and field in middle school, and went to a performing arts high school. After completing a B.A. in English Literature at Yale University (which she attended on a music scholarship), she moved to New York to become a writer and a performer.
____________________
While completing an intensive two-year Meisner program in acting, she created the band, October Project, with composer Emil Adler and a group of friends. Originally Julie did not perform with the band, but wrote all the lyrics—infusing the group with the rich, dark mysticism that floats around all her projects.
October Project was quickly signed to Epic Records and recorded two critically acclaimed albums, October Project (1993) and Falling Farther In (1995), which have influenced a decade’s worth of “spiritual” musicians, including Evanescence and Sufjan Stevens, to name but two.
Touring the US and Europe both as a headliner and as an opener for such artists as Sarah McLachlan and the Crash Test Dummies, the band developed a loving and loyal audience. October Project appeared on Late Night With Conan O’Brien, VH1 and MTV, and its recordings have been used on TV (Baywatch, One Life To Live, E-xtra, The Real World) and in feature films (Blown Away, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Jeff Bridges).
Originally fronted by the remarkable singer, Mary Fahl, whose unique alto sent shivers through the music industry, October Project was reformed several years ago around Marina Belica, formerly the band’s harmony singer. Music journalists have described Marina’s shimmering instrument as “flawless and angelic.” Dave Sabatino and Urbano Sanchez, the band’s other original members, still perform with the group at their pleasure.
In addition to fronting her own solo project, Julie now sings harmonies for October Project. Her amazing vocal chemistry with Marina has led reviewers to describe them as “a kinder, gentler Heart.”
In 2001 the now-independent October Project released a CD titled, Different Eyes, containing six songs that had been in OP’s “trunk.” It sold so remarkably well from the band’s website that they were inspired to continue their efforts outside the major label machine. The new OP has performed dozens of concerts since then and intends to finish a long-delayed, full-length album before year’s end.
____________________
Julie is also the lyricist for the independent recording artist, Sylvia Tosun, who writes much of her music with Emil Adler.
Julie penned the words for Sylvia’s debut CD, Too Close to the Sun, and for ten songs on her full-length, award-winning album, Jump In, whose critical and commercial acclaim represents an extraordinary success for an independent artist. The concert video of the album (entitled, Venus) will be available soon.
Songs from Jump In have been featured on TV (Dawson’s Creek, Beautiful People and the season finale of The “L” Word) and in a number of independent films.
In 2006 a remix of the Flanders & Tosun song, “Sleepless,” climbed to #8 on the Billboard charts and has been heard in clubs all over the country. The songs they have written together have garnered Tosun the Abe Olman Award for Excellence in Songwriting and two awards in the USA Songwriting Competition.
____________________
In addition to writing lyrics, Julie is also a poet, which she sees as an essentially different art form than lyric writing:
With lyrics, you must consider the way the word is being held by the music. Music changes everything. Sometimes the music makes a happy word seem sad, or creates a tension of opposite meanings; whereas in a poem, the meter, the vocabulary and the placement of the words in relation to one another create the meaning, the echoes and the resonances.Julie’s first collection of poetry and spoken word pieces is to be published this year.
____________________
Julie has also worked in the theater in New York as a playwright and performer.
Her original solo work has been seen at such venues as PS122, The John Houseman Theater, The Kitchen, DTW, HERE, Circumarts, EST and elsewhere. Her one-woman show, Living in Pieces, was performed to great acclaim off-Broadway and then re-staged by the Titans Theater Company as full cast piece, receiving one of the largest grants ever bestowed by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
Her short play, The Corporation, has been performed in several NYC theaters and was accepted to the New York Fringe Festival.
____________________
Finally, Julie is a gifted healer.
She is an inspired creative guide, a trained hypnotherapist and an NLP practitioner. Clients in her private practice have included Academy Award winners, New York Time best-selling authors, performers from Broadway, Off-Broadway, The Metropolitan Opera, The American Ballet Theatre, The New York City Ballet and TV, as well as creative people and entrepreneurs in all walks of life.
Selected by Time Out Magazine as “one of New York’s top practitioners,” Julie is a powerful teacher who brings out what is best and most extraordinary in her clients. She has taught and performed at The Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY and The Crossings in Austin, TX.
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