Sergio A. Mims: NYTimes.com: 'Julia Bullock Gives New York Recital Debut at Merkin Concert Hall'

Julia Bullock, with the pianist Renate Rohlfing in the Young Concert Artists series at Merkin Concert Hall. Credit Ruby Washington/The New York Times

Sergio A. Mims writes:

I came across this fabulous rave review for a recital by the young rising soprano Julia Bullock at the Merkin Concert Hall  in the New York Times.

Here's the review:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/arts/music/julia-bullock-at-merkin-concert-hall.html?action=click&module=Search&region=searchResults%230&version=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F%3Faction%3Dclick%26region%3DMasthead%26pgtype%3DHomepage%26module%3DSearchSubmit%26contentCollection%3DHomepage%26t%3Dqry625%23%2Fjulia+bullock

And here's her website

http://www.juliabullocksoprano.com/

Sergio

 

Personal Mix of Familiar and Fresh, With a Show-Tune Encore

Julia Bullock Gives New York Recital Debut at Merkin Concert Hall

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI

MARCH 12, 2014

The young American soprano Julia Bullock won lots of fans in New York last spring for her endearing, vocally radiant performance of the title role in Janacek’s “The Cunning Little Vixen,” presented by Juilliard Opera in an enchanting production. Clearly Ms. Bullock is still faring well in her studies at Juilliard, for late next month, she will sing the title role in the school’s production of Massenet’s “Cendrillon.”

On Tuesday night, Ms. Bullock showed another dimension of her impressive artistry when she made her New York recital debut, as part of the Young Concert Artists series at Merkin Concert Hall. Accompanied sensitively by the fine pianist Renate Rohlfing, Ms. Bullock presented a musically fresh and personal program.

She began with an Italian group, boldly alternating early Berio songs with late Rossini works, dealing in various ways with the pangs of love and the ruminations on the ideal woman. The Berio works were based on folk songs, though the composer, then a student, folded the tunes into milky modern harmonic textures. The Rossini songs, written during his decades of official retirement from the opera business, are charming and clever. The title of the first song in this group, Berio’s “Dolce Cominciamento,” translates as “sweet beginning.” The sentiment applied equally well to Ms. Bullock’s recital because, from the first phrases, her singing was plush, full and nuanced.

Correction: March 14, 2014

A music review on Thursday about a performance by the soprano Julia Bullock, at Merkin Concert Hall in Manhattan, referred imprecisely to a recent concert appearance by Ms. Bullock with the San Francisco Symphony. She sang “Somewhere” from “West Side Story”; she did not sing the role of Maria.