Julia Bullock to Release First Solo Recording in December

Classical singer Julia Bullock - declared by the New York Times to be "one of the singular artists of her generation - a singer of enveloping tone, startlingly mature presence and unusually sophisticated insight into culture, society and history" - makes her solo recording debut on December 9 with the release of Walking in the Dark on Nonesuch Records.

Anchoring the album are two large orchestral works - Samuel Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and the aria "Memorial de Tlatelolco" from John Adams's El Niño - both featuring London's Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Christian Reif. With Reif as pianist, Bullock also performs the traditional spiritual "City Called Heaven" and songs by Oscar Brown, Jr., Billy Taylor, Sandy Denny, and Connie Converse.

The album, as well as a single of the Converse song "One by One," whose lyrics are the source of the album's title, can be preordered here. The single was recently featured on NPR's #NowPlaying, praised as an "intimate interpretation" with "exquisitely sculpted phrases."

Bullock curates a series of programs for the Los Angeles Philharmonic this November, before joining the same orchestra in January for performances of John Adams's Girls of the Golden West. She has additional engagements in Hamburg, Amsterdam, San Francisco, and more in the coming months. A complete list of dates may be found here.

Julia Bullock is an American classical singer who "communicates intense, authentic feeling, as if she were singing right from her soul" (Opera News). Combining versatile artistry with a probing intellect and commanding stage presence, she has headlined productions and concerts at preeminent arts institutions around the world.

An innovative curator in high demand from a diverse group of arts presenters, museums and schools, her notable positions have included collaborative partner of Esa-Pekka Salonen at the San Francisco Symphony, 2020-22 artist-in-residence of London's Guildhall School, 2019-20 artist-in-residence of the San Francisco Symphony, and 2018-19 artist-in-residence at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

She is also a prominent voice of social consciousness and activism. As Vanity Fair notes, Bullock is "young, highly successful, [and] politically engaged," with the "ability to inject each note she sings with a sense of grace and urgency, lending her performances the feel of being both of the moment and incredibly timeless."

Honored as a 2021 Artist of the Year and "agent of change" by Musical America, Bullock gave a Tiny Desk (Home) Concert as part of NPR Music's special quarantine edition of the series in December 2020; NPR's Tom Huizenga characterized it as "among the most transcendent musical moments I've experienced."

Bullock was born in St. Louis, Missouri, where she joined the artist-in-training program at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis while in high school. She went on to earn her bachelor's degree at the Eastman School of Music, her master's degree in Bard College's Graduate Vocal Arts Program, and her artist diploma at New York's Juilliard School. It was there that she first met her husband, conductor Christian Reif, with whom she now lives in Munich. The couple expects their first child this fall.