Julia Sutton

Julia Sutton (July 20, 1928 – July 1, 2012) was a musicologist and historian of early dance and music. She was professor at New England Conservatory of Music, teaching in the Music History and Musicology department, which she chaired for more than twenty years. She also taught in NEC's Performance of Early Music department, and directed the Collegium Terpsichore. She received her PhD from University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music in 1962.

Sutton was a dance enthusiast and also a teacher of living dance traditions, including American square dance, American contradance, international folk dance, and English country dance. Her scholarship explored the relationships between music and dance in Western culture. She directed and reconstructed dances for the New York Pro Musica's cross-country tours of An Entertainment for Elizabeth, the Pennsylvania Orchestra Association's Renaissance Revisited, the Ensemble for Early Music's Renaissance Revels, and a production of the great Florentine Intermedio of 1589, The Descent of Rhythm and Harmony (Cavalieri). She was a guest lecturer at many universities and colleges, and led workshops and courses of study about Renaissance dance and music.