Grammy-winning American classical singer Julia Bullock combines versatile artistry with a probing intellect and commanding stage presence. As well as headlining productions and concerts at preeminent arts institutions around the world including The Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Symphony Orcherstra, the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics, the Baltimore, Boston, London, NHK, and San Francisco Symphonies, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; and London’s Philharmonia Orchestra and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, she has held positions as Artist-in-Residence of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Berkeley’s Cal Performances, and the San Francisco Symphony and is a founding core member of the American Modern Opera Company. A prominent voice of social consciousness and activism, she is “a singer of enveloping tone, startlingly mature presence and unusually sophisticated insight into culture, society and history” (The New York Times).
Bullock has developed and launched three signature projects, all flourishing nationally and beyond. Her multimedia ensemble program “History’s Persistent Voice” addresses the transatlantic slave trade through songs by people enslaved in the U.S. and through visual art, poetry, and new music by B/black female composers. Devised with her husband, Christian Reif, El Niño: Nativity Reconsidered is a chamber orchestral arrangement of El Niño that amplifies the voices of women and Latin American poets. Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine, created with Tyshawn Sorey, Claudia Rankine, Michael Schumacher, and Peter Sellars, reexamines the life and legacy of Joséphine Baker. Recorded with Reif and the Philharmonia Orchestra for Nonesuch, Bullock’s solo album debut, Walking in the Dark, won the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal, as well as Opus Klassik and Edison Klassiek awards.