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FEATURE Exploring Music from a Different Perspective
EXPLORING MUSIC FROM A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
Soprano Julia Bullock—who recently joined the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl in 2021 to sing the music of Margaret Bonds and will perform later this season in John Adams’ opera Girls of the Golden West—is used to performing center stage. But she is reveling in the chance to explore music from a different perspective as curator of Rock My Soul, a festival celebrating collaboration and community among Black women artists.
In addition to her performances with the LA Phil, Bullock has had notable positions as a collaborative partner of Esa-Pekka Salonen at the San Francisco Symphony, Artist-inResidence of London’s Guildhall School, and Artist-in-Residence at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. She’s pulled together a wide range of classical and contemporary influences to create Rock My Soul, a celebration of Black women artists. “My curation ‘voice’ is my offering for this festival,” Bullock says. “I feel very proud and excited to provide space for additional voices to be heard.”
HOW DID YOU CONNECT WITH THE LA PHIL ON THIS EFFORT?
Meghan Umber, the LA Phil’s Vice President of Artistic Planning, wrote to my manager and said: “I have been thinking about a project and a festival that would feature Black women composers, but would specifically look at the relationship between Margaret Bonds and Florence Price, perhaps the most prominent Black women composers of the 20th century. Would Julia want to not only think about curating a program around those composers but also look in a broader sense at what this festival can be?”
AN EXCITING OFFER, BUT ALSO A DAUNTING ONE.
We had a meeting when I was in Los Angeles singing the Hollywood Bowl just last summer. I said this is a very nice offer, however, it’s a short time frame! From popular music performers to film directors, I just threw out a wide net of women who pulled my attention at different phases of my life and also inspired my work. Along with LA Phil musicians, the program includes Chaka Khan, Meshell Ndegeocello, Resistance Revival Chorus, and many others. The program also includes Humanities events curated by ARRAY, an award-winning narrative change collective founded by Oscar-nominated
filmmaker Ava DuVernay, best known for Selma and the TV docudrama series When They See Us, about the Central Park Five.
HOW DID YOU WEAVE TOGETHER CLASSICAL COMPOSERS AND CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS, INCLUDING POP STAR KHAN AND SINGER, SONGWRITER, AND INSTRUMENTALIST RHIANNON GIDDENS—GRAMMY AWARDWINNING CO-FOUNDER OF THE CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS— INTO A UNIFIED WHOLE?
The initial proposal was about this focus on Price and Bonds. But there has been the building of a community of artists among women of color. It’s been a very surprising and unexpected turn in my creative life, because almost every single aspect of how I was trained was either focusing on oneself or about celebrating the work of one person.
WHAT MOST SURPRISED YOU IN YOUR CRASH COURSE ON BONDS AND PRICE?
The work written at certain times in their lives was sometimes an exact counter to what was happening. There may have been a horrible race riot, but they decided to write a very intimate piano piece, or something that was very joyful.
WHAT DID YOU COME TO LEARN ABOUT THE WAY BEING A WOMAN PLAYED INTO THEIR CAREERS?
In 1943, Price wrote a letter to the conductor of the Boston Symphony, Serge Koussevitzky, trying to get him to program one of her symphonies: “To begin with, I have two handicaps, that of sex and race. I am a woman, and I have Negro blood in my veins,” she wrote. It broke my heart to read that.
LET’S TALK ABOUT THE TITLE OF THE FESTIVAL, WHICH I UNDERSTAND CHANGED DURING THE PLANNING STAGES.
The LA Phil was considering a title based on a poem by Maya Angelou, Still I Rise, which I really do love—but I was conflicted. While trauma can certainly be the fuel for your work, it is just one aspect of it. I did not want it to be just about struggling. And that’s when Julia Ward, the LA Phil’s Director of Humanities, came forward with the Rock My Soul title. She said, “for me, this one really works because we’re bringing up the Black American spiritual Rock My Soul, and also this is the title of one of bell hooks’ books, Rock My Soul: Black People and SelfEsteem.” And I was like, oh yeah, that feels good.
AND ROCK MY SOUL IS ALSO ABOUT FEELING GOOD, RIGHT?
It was important to understand the social and political influences and contexts around their work. But it was also: How do I create the most thrilling, fun, deep, and resonant concert experience?
YOU JUST WANT TO BE THERE.
Yeah, right? You just want to be there.
Interview conducted by Diane Haithman
Previous page: Julia Bullock. This page, from top: Portrait of Margaret Bonds, 1956. Photograph by Carl Van Vechten. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Carl Van Vechten Collection, LC-USZ62-105746.; Portrait of Florence Price, n.d. Photograph by G. Nelidoff. Florence Beatrice Smith Price Papers Addendum (MC 988a), Box 2, Folder 1, Item 4. Special Collections, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville; Chaka Khan; Rhiannon Giddens.
Celebrating Black Women Artists in Collaboration and Community
ENHANCE YOUR EXPERIENCE:
DRINKS IN THE GARDEN nov 11
Starting at 6:30pm, you can enjoy a complimentary drink and soak up the lush and leafy ambience of Walt Disney Concert Hall’s Blue Ribbon Garden. laphil.com/thegarden
UPBEAT LIVE nov*5, 6 & 11
Pre-concert talks and events that provide historical and cultural context for your program. Visit laphil.com/upbeatlive for details.
The Rock My Soul festival is generously supported in part by Margaret Morgan and Wesley Phoa.
SUN OCT 30 7:30PM CHAKA KHAN
Chaka Khan is a force of nature as a live performer, and an exceptional songwriter and collaborator. The voice of hits “Sweet Thing,” “You Got the Love,” “I Feel for You,” and the triumphant “I’m Every Woman” leads off the Rock My Soul festival.
MICHELLE BRADLEY
SAT NOV 5* 8PM • SUN NOV 6 2PM A MUSICAL PORTRAIT: PRICE AND BONDS
Los Angeles Philharmonic Lidiya Yankovskaya, conductor Julia Bullock, curator Michelle Bradley, soprano Jasmin White, mezzo-soprano Michelle Cann, piano Nathaniel Gumbs, organ PRICE Retrospection for Organ • The Oak • Mvt II & III from Symphony No. 4 • Selected Songs • Selected
Works for Solo Piano • Organ Suite No. 1 PRICE (arr. Michael-Thomas FOUMAI) new work after Price’s Fantasie nègre No. 1 (world premiere, LA Phil commission) BONDS (arr. by Jannina NORPOTH) Selected Songs BONDS Selections from Montgomery Variations From art songs to solo showpieces and symphonic excerpts, Julia Bullock curates an evening showcasing the enduring musical voices of Florence Price and Margaret Bonds.
JERI LYNNE JOHNSON
FRI NOV 11 8PM BRYAN, BONDS & PRICE
Los Angeles Philharmonic Jeri Lynne Johnson, conductor Julia Bullock, curator Singer to be announced Courtney BRYAN Sanctum PRICE/BONDS Selected Songs PRICE Symphony No. 3 Jeri Lynne Johnson leads a program that brings the historic fight for acceptance and dignity by Bonds and Price into conversation with the modern day.
SAT NOV 12 8PM RHIANNON GIDDENS
Los Angeles Philharmonic Jeri Lynne Johnson, conductor Resistance Revival Chorus
Both with The Carolina Chocolate Drops and in her own solo work, Rhiannon Giddens has used her art to excavate the past and reveal bold truths about our present.
SAT NOV 5 11AM • SAT NOV 19 11AM SYMPHONIES FOR YOUTH: ROCK MY SOUL
Los Angeles Philharmonic Linhan Cui, conductor Our Symphonies for Youth concerts offer familyfriendly art activities and invite children ages 5 to 11 to take in the sounds of a world-class orchestra.
Programs, artists, prices, and dates subject to change.
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LAUREN SPEARMAN MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO J´NAI BRIDGES
HUMANITIES
Art · Ideas · Perspectives The LA Phil Humanities program takes the work on our stages as a starting point for a larger cultural conversation. Celebrated filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY, a Peabody Award-winning narrative change collective, curates a series of Humanities events exploring the themes of Rock My Soul through the lens of film and television music.
SAT NOV 5 10AM MOVIE SOUNDTRACK YOGA
Location: The Ford
Laying a foundation for creativity and collaboration through wellness, we invite yogis at all levels to join an open-air class led by Lauren Spearman, founder of R&B Yoga. The morning’s playlist will feature songs by Black women from film and television soundtracks.
WED NOV 16 8PM AN EVENING WITH MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO
featuring the music of Queen Sugar
Location: BP Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall
Join Meshell Ndegeocello—award-winning singer-songwriter, bassist, and composer behind Ava DuVernay’s television series Queen Sugar—for an intimate evening of music and conversation.
TUE NOV 22 7PM CARMEN JONES SCREENING
following a live performance by J´Nai Bridges
Location: REDCAT
Set to the music of Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen, with updated lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Carmen Jones began its life on stage and was famously translated to film in 1954 with an all-Black cast led by the iconic Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte. Join us for a rare screening of Carmen Jones preceded by a live musical performance by Grammy® Award-winning mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges, paying tribute to Dandridge´s towering achievement.
The LA Phil´s Humanities programs are generously supported by Linda and David Shaheen.
