On Jan. 23, soprano Julia Bullock joined the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at the 92NY for a special evening of music. Bullock, who won the 2024 Grammy for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for “Walking in the Dark,” performed the greatest hits of the Baroque era — arias by Handel, Purcell, Rameau, and Lully, including the glorious “Let the Bright Seraphim,” along with instrumental masterworks by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and Pachelbel.
Trained at the Eastman School of Music, Bard College, and Juilliard, Bullock is as technically stellar as she is versatile; no doubt because the inclination to perform appeared as a young child. “It’s hard for me to remember a time when I did not want to perform or express myself with my body in some way. It was just deciding how I wanted to do that,” she said
Bullock has appeared on the soundtrack of Amazon series “The Underground Railroad” and at the Metropolitan Opera, London Opera House, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and many more venues.
Her appearance on Thursday marked her debut at 92NY, with “material that’s lived with us for over 300 years,” said the St. Louis, Missouri-born and -raised singer. “Part of it is because they all talk about history, they all talk about the cycle of life in one way or another, and that just continues to resonate with people.”
Bullock, 38, said this program was a chance to reintroduce audiences to talented artists whose work has been overlooked by mainstream classical audiences for too long. “There’s a couple composers I wanted to ensure were on this program who have been dismissed and are now coming kind of back into shared musical consciousness,” she said. “Usually a reason for that dismissal is … I can only really attribute to societal structures and not wanting to promote certain individuals, like women or people of color.”
Bullock was exposed to the arts very early in life. “My mom loved dancing, and I often went with her to her tap classes, so my introduction to music was through movement initially, and then listening to recordings and going to live concerts with my parents.” Her stepfather played a pivotal role in her musical trajectory; introducing her to Western classical music through audio and video recordings of classical singers such as Regine Crespin, who was a revelation and symbol of a world Bullock did not wish to leave.
“We had these old speakers that were, maybe 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide, and I just used to sit and press my ear against the speakers and just listened over and over and over again. That was the first major album I fell in love with.”
Bullock had influences among a variety genres, citing Nina Simone, Jimi Hendrix, and Billie Holiday. The first album she recalled moving her to tears was not a strictly classical one. “It was Audra McDonald singing ‘My Daddy’s Son’ in [“Ragtime”]. It was one of her breakout roles on Broadway … I think that was the first time that I cried … listening and watching her. Just in the privacy of my own room in high school. I think I cried probably every day,” Bullock recalled.
Now the married mom of a toddler, Bullock isn’t one to rest on her laurels. In addition to numerous guest performances with orchestras around the world and maintaining a thriving solo career, Bullock is often a speaker in panels about equity, inclusion, and restorative justice in the arts and was an American Modern Opera Company (AMOC) founding core member. She serves on the Advisory Board of Turn the Spotlight, a foundation designed to empower women and people of color. She has organized benefit concerts for the Shropshire Music Foundation and International Playground, two nonprofits that serve war-affected children and adolescents through music education and performance programs.
Widely known as an activist as well as an artist, Bullock has used her platform and position to advocate more equity, fairness, and respect for artists. “I think a lot about projects that I’m initiating or the lead on, [asking] what is the culture of that environment? Are we having equitable pay for people? Are artists given the support that they need, whether that’s from musical support, or do … they need intimacy coordinators on a project?”
At the root of some of her activist tendencies are painful personal experiences. “There are certain things that have happened over the course of these 10 or so years that I’ve been working professionally in this field where I felt totally exploited, taken advantage of, and disrespected, in every way imaginable,” she said.
Because Bullock was willing to be a voice, some of those things have shifted. “Those concerns, more often than not, are addressed,” Bullock said. “That is really a heartening thing. There have absolutely been major shifts and protections now put in place to make the working environment one that is not only safe but also really joyful.”
Visit https://www.92ny.org/event/oae-and-julia-bullock for more information.