Born in Straubing, Germany in 1980, Austrian composer and Violist Julia Purgina studied viola with Wolfgang Klos and composition with Erich Urbanner and Chaya Czernowin at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. She was a student of Ulrich Knörzer at the Berlin University of the Arts. Ms. Purgina holds a double master degree in viola and composition from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Additionally, she is interested in Philology and has started studies in German and Slovak Languages at the Vienna University in 2011.

Ms. Purgina played in the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra from 2004–2007. Though her primary focus is on the performance of modern music, she also performs frequently with orchestras such as the Wiener Kammerorchester. She is co-founder of ensemble LUX and a member of Ensemble Reconsil and the jazz group Studio Dan. Several viola concertos are dedicated to her.

As a composer, Julia Purgina has had commissions from the Wiener Symphoniker, Radio Symphonie Orchester Wien, Hugo Wolf Quartet, the Wien Modern Festival, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Concertverein, Ensemble Kontrapunkte, the Theater in Kempten (Germany), Aspekte Festival Salzburg (oenm) and the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt, among others. In October 2014, she was one of three featured composers at Soundings Festival in London.

2017/18 she was composer in-residence for the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra (Sweden). 2019 her orchestra piece „Akatalepsia“ was recommended for the Rostrum of composers by the Austrian Broadcast Corporation. In 2020 her first opera was premiered by the sirene operntheater. In September 2016, Julia Purgina was appointed University Professor and Head of Strings at the MUK (Music and Arts Private University of the city of Vienna).