Julia Bullock in 2026–27: Perle Noire in Paris and London; Cleveland Orchestra debut; Swiss premiere of Doctor Atomic at Zurich Opera; Barber’s Knoxville in St. Louis and on tour with Philharmonie Zuidnederland; more
Julia Bullock (photo: Grant Legan)
“One of today’s smartest, most arresting vocalists in any genre.” – NPR
(August 2026) — Following widely lauded tour-de-force performances of her Joséphine Baker-inspired Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine at Australia’s Adelaide Festival last season, Grammy-winning American classical singer Julia Bullock uses the same piece to launch her 2026–27 season, giving its French premiere at the Opéra national de Paris (Sep 9–19) before taking it to London’s Barbican the following month (Oct 20). Also in the fall, Bullock makes her long-awaited debut with The Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Jane Glover, performing another work with which she has become intimately associated, Britten’s Les Illuminations (Nov 12–15). On the opera stage, Bullock reprises the role of Kitty Oppenheimer in John Adams’s Doctor Atomic, which she sang on the opera’s 2018 Grammy-nominated recording, when she joins the Swiss premiere at the Zurich Opera House along with conductor Elim Chan (Feb 7–28). In April, Bullock collaborates with Adams himself when he conducts a program of his own music with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (April 16–18). Bullock’s season also includes numerous performances of Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, a work that anchored the soprano’s 2022 solo debut album, Walking in the Dark. After fall performances in her hometown with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (Oct 30 & 31), Bullock sings the piece with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project led by Gil Rose – also performing selections from Matthew Aucoin’s The No One’s Rose on the same program (Nov 6) – and then on tour in the spring in the Netherlands and Germany with the Philharmonie Zuidnederland (June 25–July 3). Rounding out Bullock’s season are a performance of Messiaen’s Harawi with pianist Conor Hanick in Portland, Oregon (Oct 4), a recital at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music as part of a teaching residency (Oct 9), and a Vienna performance of Hans Werner Henze’s song cycle Voices with tenor Peter Tantsits and the Klangforum Wien contemporary chamber orchestra (Jan 12).
Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine
Inspired by the life and art of Joséphine Baker, Bullock developed Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine in collaboration with storied opera director Peter Sellars and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Tyshawn Sorey, with spoken interludes by poet Claudia Rankine. Zachary Woolfe, writing in The New York Times, called the show “… a masterpiece. … This is a ritual of mourning, not a gay-Paree nostalgia trip, and it is one of the most important works of art yet to emerge from the era of Black Lives Matter.” Bullock gives the highly anticipated French premiere of the work this fall in eight performances at the Opéra national de Paris, opening the venue’s season and honoring Baker in the country that made her famous on the 120th anniversary of her birth. Sorey joins Bullock for the performance, conducting the members of the International Contemporary Ensemble (Sep 9–19). The following month, Bullock gives yet another high-profile account of the work with the same forces, this time at London’s Barbican Centre (Oct 20). After she performed Perle Noire at Australia’s Adelaide Festival last season, Australian Stage declared that “Bullock’s gorgeous, velvety voice has a huge range, which was richly exploited by Sorey’s music,” and Bachtrack concluded: “Overall this was Bullock’s show – brilliantly sung (mostly not operatically), danced and acted, providing not only a glimpse into the life of Joséphine Baker, but also that of all black women in white society.”
Britten’s Les Illuminations
When Bullock performed Britten’s song cycle Les Illuminations – comprising nine settings of poems by Rimbaud – with the San Francisco Symphony in 2020, the San Francisco Chronicle found her interpretation to be “something of a revelation … a performance of magnificent expansiveness.” This season, the cycle serves as the vehicle for Bullock’s debut with The Cleveland Orchestra, with Jane Glover on the podium. Glover takes every opportunity to conduct Britten’s works, to which she was first exposed as a 13-year-old in England when she heard a performance of the War Requiem. Three years later she had the chance to meet the composer and Peter Pears; they sent her tickets to Peter Grimes for her birthday and invited her to the Aldeburgh Festival, providing a critical inspiration at the beginning of her career (Nov 12–15).
John Adams’s Doctor Atomic in Zurich and Adams portrait in Los Angeles
In spring of 2025, Bullock’s acclaimed performance in the title role of Pulitzer Prize winner John Adams’s Antony and Cleopatra at the Metropolitan Opera earned her praise for “piercing intelligence and expressive nuance” (Opera Today). A longtime collaborator with the composer, Bullock also created the role of Dame Shirley in his Girls of the Golden West and sang the role of Kitty Oppenheimer on the Grammy-nominated 2018 Nonesuch recording of his opera Doctor Atomic, with the composer conducting the BBC Symphony. She returns to the latter role this season for the opera’s Swiss premiere at the Zurich Opera House. On the podium is Elim Chan – who will become the Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony beginning in the 2027–28 season – making her staged opera debut (Feb 7–28).
The following month, Bullock reunites with Adams himself in Los Angeles, when he conducts a program of his own works in the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s “Minimalist Icons” series. Bullock is joined by soloists John Moore and Will Liverman, as well as the Los Angeles Master Chorale, for a program including music from Doctor Atomic, The Death of Klinghoffer, Nixon in China, and El Niño. The latter is a work Bullock returns to frequently; she recorded El Niño’s “Memorial de Tlatelolco,” which she reprises in Los Angeles, on her solo album debut, Walking in the Dark (April 16–18).
Recent successes
The resounding success of Perle Noire in Australia was only one of Bullock’s recent highlights. In addition to her onstage accomplishments, she served as the Festival Director of the 2026 Cincinnati May Festival, the oldest choral music festival in the Western Hemisphere. Included were collaborations with the Cincinnati Ballet, the Classical Roots Community Choir, and the MUSE Cincinnati Women’s Choir; the most works by Black Americans and the largest overall diversity of composers and performers in the festival’s history; selections from The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess crafted by Bullock, in which she performed as a soloist along with Alfred Walker; selections from Carlos Simon’s Good News Mass featuring organ improvisations from Simon himself, as part of an “Eclectic Mass” assemblage that also included music by Margaret Bonds, Palestrina, and Bach; Alexander von Zemlinsky’s settings of Harlem Renaissance poets, and much more. The summer also brought two firsts for Bullock, when she sang the role of Carmen – a role debut and the first mezzo role she has ever sung – at Minnesota’s Lakes Area Music Festival, conducted by her husband, Christian Reif, who returns each summer as the festival’s Music Director. Reviewing the second weekend of concerts, the Cincinnati Business Courier praised Bullock’s performances and curation as “provocative, inspiring, and historic in many ways.”
Julia Bullock: 2026–27 engagements
Sep 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19
Paris, France
Opéra national de Paris
International Contemporary Ensemble
Tyshawn Sorey, conductor and composer
Perle Noire: Meditations for Josephine
Oct 4
Portland, OR
Friends of Chamber Music
Conor Hanick, piano
MESSIAEN: Harawi
Oct 9
Houston, TX
Rice University
Recital + teaching residency
Oct 20
London, UK
Barbican Centre
Perle Noire: Meditations for Josephine
Oct 30 & 31
St. Louis, MO
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
BARBER: Knoxville: Summer of 1915
Nov 6
Boston, MA
Jordan Hall
Boston Modern Orchestra Project
Gil Rose, conductor
BARBER: Knoxville: Summer of 1915
Matthew AUCOIN: Selections from The No One’s Rose
Nov 12, 14, 15
Cleveland, OH
The Cleveland Orchestra
Jane Glover, conductor
BRITTEN: Les Illuminations
Jan 12
Vienna, Austria
Klangforum Wien
HENZE Voices
Feb 7, 11, 14, 20, 24, 28
Zürich, Switzerland
Zürich Opera House
Elim Chan, conductor
John ADAMS: Doctor Atomic
April 16, 17, 18
Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles Philharmonic
John Adams, conductor
June 15
Wuppertal, Germany
Walking in the Dark recital
Christian Reif, piano
June 25–July 3: Tour with Philharmonie Zuidnederland
June 25: Breda, NL (The Chassé Theater)
June 26: Tilburg, NL (Concertzaal)
June 28: Köln, Germany (Kölner Philharmonie)
July 1: Kerkrade, NL (Theater Kerkrade)
July 2: Den Bosch (Theater a/d Parade)
July 3: Eindhoven, NL (Muziekgebouw)
BARBER: Knoxville: Summer of 1915