Classical Singer Julia Bullock Makes Her Aspen Debut

Classical Singer Julia Bullock Makes Her Aspen Debut

SHANNON ASHER

Festival Focus Writer

Fast-rising star and American classical singer Julia Bullock makes her debut performance at the Aspen Music Festival and School this summer. After performing last Friday with Nicholas McGegan, Stephen Waarts, and the Aspen Chamber Symphony, Bullock will be performing a recital on Tuesday evening with pianist John Arida.

Bullock’s recent positions have included prestigious artistic partnerships and residencies with Esa-Pekka Salonen at the San Francisco Symphony, London’s Guildhall School, the San Francisco Symphony, and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. She was also honored as a 2021 Artist of the Year and “agent of change” by Musical America.

This will be Bullock’s first time performing a full recital in almost two years, and her first time back in the United States since March of 2020. “The recital format is one that I just look forward to tremendously,” Bullock said in a recent phone interview from her home in Munich, Germany. “It’s all material that I love very much, and some of the songs I’ve been singing for several years.”

When it comes to programming, Bullock looks for specific themes that can be echoed throughout the evening. “Whether that be through themes of the poetry, words themselves, the musical language, folk songs, women living and liberating themselves and how that impacted their creative output,” Bullock says. “All of those things are certainly echoed throughout this concert. I think that those things are explicit, at least in this program.”

One of the newest works that Bullock will share on Tuesday is music by Connie Converse. “Originally I just sang one of her songs as an encore, as a part of a program,” Bullock explains. “I heard a recording of her that was made in somebody’s living room in the 1950s and when I heard this CD, she just reminded me of some of the greatest art songs, both lyrically and musically in terms of harmony and all of that.”

Bullock continues, “It specifically reminded me of Schubert, and so I wrote to this arranger, pianist, and composer friend of mine, Jeremy Siskind, whose other arrangements are also on this program. I said, ‘Hey, I really love this tune. Could you set it with Schubert in mind?’ He came up with this beautiful arrangement.”

Bullock and pianist John Arida were originally roommates in New York City for five years while Bullock was studying at Juilliard. “We were both looking for a new apartment, so we ended up sharing a place with another pianist, Brent Funderburk,” Bullock explains.

Bullock and Arida did not end up working together, though, until just a couple years before she moved out of the city. “One thing that I just loved about working with him was that I was able to witness his work ethic, his commitment to rehearsing, and just the way that he embodied the music,” Bullock says. “I feel very comfortable and at home with him where I’m able to take risks.”

After taking several months off from performing, Bullock explains that the muscle memory of performing and dealing with the stress of that is something that musicians must work back up to again. “The Festival is about the process of just being able to share space and time with people,” Bullock conveys. “I’m really looking forward to sharing resources and tools. I love being with musicians and being surrounded by creative people. This is going to be a very intense time. I just hope that we can cherish the time that we have together, come with openness, lots of questions, and some joy.”

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