2024–25 Season
Artist in Residence
Julia Bullock
Cal Performances welcomes soprano Julia Bullock as 2024–25 season Artist in Residence, with two performances that showcase her radiant voice, keen interpretive intelligence, and boundless artistic imagination. One of the most influential and admired artists before the public today, Bullock is in demand the world over as a captivating performer in a dazzling range of repertoire, from the Baroque era to the present. Most recently, she won her first Grammy for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album, a collaboration with conductor and pianist Christian Reif which was also named one of NPR Music’s 10 Best Classical Albums of 2022. Whether bringing fresh insight to well-known masterworks, creating new roles as the muse of many of the world’s leading composers, or designing bespoke programs that marry her musical intrepidness with deep exploration of the most pressing issues of our time, Bullock is an artist whose curiosity inspires audiences to feel and think more deeply. On the UC Berkeley campus, she finds the ideal setting to showcase and share her profound gifts. Visit calperformances.com/artist-in-residence-julia-bullock for information about campus events and activities as they are announced.
Leadership support for the 2024-25 Julia Bullock residency at Cal Performances is provided by Michael P. N. A. Hormel.
View a conversation between Jeremy Geffen and Julia Bullock on her upcoming residency.
WEST COAST PREMIERE
Fri, Sep 27, 8pm, Zellerbach Hall
Zack Winokur, directorJulia Bullock, sopranoConor Hanick, pianoBobbi Jene Smith, choreographer and dancerOr Schraiber, choreographer and dancer
Harawi, an American Modern Opera Company production, realizes Olivier Messiaen’s deeply affecting, hour-long song cycle for voice and piano in a newly physicalized and dramatized dimension featuring company members soprano Julia Bullock, pianist Conor Hanick, and choreographer/dancers Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber, with direction by Zack Winokur. Moving from duet to quartet, the production breaks open Messiaen’s cycle, connects the relationship between movement and music, and grapples with the intensity of love and loss in the human experience.
An Illuminations: “Fractured History” event.
Sun, Jan 19, 3pm, Zellerbach Hall
For her second engagement of the season, Bullock is joined by the famed period-instrument ensemble the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in its long-awaited return to Berkeley. The collective brings a fresh approach and a spirit of inquisitiveness to Baroque music performance—and is known for making historic instruments sing in the repertoire originally composed for them. The program highlights Bullock’s gleaming soprano in arias from operas by Handel, Lully, Rameau, and Purcell in Italian, French, and English, as well as instrumental showpieces by Vivaldi, Bach, Pachelbel, and Handel.
Bullock brings the quality of oration to all she sings. By the end... you just may feel the world ever so slightly differently, with your perception a little changed, your receptivity a little enhanced, your sense of wonder a little improved."
Arias and instrumental works by Handel, Lully, Rameau, Purcell, Vivaldi, J.S. Bach, and others
see full program
