SOPRANO ALL ABOUT GIVING BLUES ITS DUE
The New York Times calls soprano Julia Bullock “an exceptional singer of the new generation.” She makes her Vancouver debut Oct. 21, with pianist John Arida, in a Vancouver Recital Society program of Schubert, Faure and various American composers.
Bullock, who hails from St. Louis, won first prize at the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 2012 and then did the same at the 2014 Naumburg International Vocal Competition. And she has sung in opera and recitals ever since.
“I always knew that I wanted to perform,” Bullock said. “I became interested in musical theatre because it used all the skill sets I was developing. My parents certainly wanted to support me, though I’m not sure if they realized just how high my aspirations were.”
At 17, a family member gave Bullock a recording of famous classical female singers.
“Over six months of constant listening, it shifted my interests. That recording still inspires me today.”
Managing her career has been a challenge for the fast-rising soprano.
“I’m trying to be very specific in the projects I choose, so that I’m sure I can deliver what is required,” said Bullock. “Of course there is no way of knowing how your voice will eventually settle or what repertoire you will gravitate to. A lot of it is simply following instinct.”
Bullock currently divides her focus between the recital platform and the opera stage.
“I’m very happy with both. My introduction was through song and in (recital) the relationship between the music and the lyrics can be so much more complicated than in opera, where you are contributing to a whole. But the demands are exactly the same: you need to be focused on a direct delivery of the text.
“Otherwise, if you get obsessed with what you think you can add in performance, it just becomes a mechanism for putting yourself on display, which I’m really not interested in.”
For her Vancouver appearance, Bullock will sing music penned by American women, including Alberta Hunter, Lovie Austin, Billie Holiday and Nina Simone. It’s no crossover stunt, but an exploration of tradition and identity.
“My initial research on blues singers was three or four years ago,” said Bullock.
“I was thinking about Josephine Baker and St. Louis and wanted to present that history in context. I see it as a kind of responsibility. The lyrics are amazing and immensely powerful and I have to respect the message that is being communicated.”
Besides, as she points out: “Musically, I don’t think the transition from late Faure to blues is really that difficult; just a slow shift into these remarkable blues tunes.”
Bullock’s Vancouver date is part of a six-city fall tour. She has another big project on tap this season as artist-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “They asked my manager to have me come and look through the museum and think about singing there.”
And after they heard Bullock sing, a Met official made an offer.
“I was astonished and said rather weakly, ‘Well, what would that entail?’ They said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, ‘Oh, well, we just open a season to you and you can program whatever you want: recitals or lectures or research.’ So I spent six months putting together every conceivable idea. Then I began focusing on issues of representation, exploitation and objectification. All these wild ideas ended up in a common theme about being a black American, which surprised me.”
Bullock’s Met adventure began last month with History’s Persistent
Voice, a recital featuring traditional black slave songs and texts. In December, she presents musical settings of words by Langston Hughes and a chamber version of John Adams’ nativity oratorio El Nino before rounding out her residency in the new year with Tyshawn Sorey’s Perle Noire (Meditations for Josephine) and a rare revival of Hans Werner Henze’s El Cimarron.
Lucky New Yorkers. But lucky Vancouver to get an afternoon with Bullock.