Ravinia 2021 - Issue 1

“I’m always leaning toward a full integration of my voice.” tasty food cooked by St. Martha, all under the beneficent eye of St. Peter. “It’s a child’s vision of heaven in one way,” said Bullock. “But it’s not naïve, and it’s all-encompassing as well. Yes, there is the joy of abundance and peace and pleasure, but there’s also an element of danger there. Death is present in heaven as well. There’s violence [a butchered lamb, a slaughtered ox]. These are all just undercurrents that metabolize very quickly over the course of the piece. Mahler doesn’t leave a lot of time to just sit in an emotion, but l feel it’s an acknowledgement of all states of being and of life.” When the coronavirus pandemic hit in mid-March 2020, Bullock’s state of being drastically changed, as it did for all of us. Like artists across the globe, she and Reif found their per- formance calendars suddenly empty. Eventually, to keep in musical shape and get the creative juices flowing, they began making short videos at home. Reif accompanied Bullock on the piano in repertoire ranging from Schubert lieder to new settings of slave songs. “My husband and I were just play- ing things,” she said, “and we decided to start recording and releasing songs almost weekly for a period.” During the pandemic, NPR Music has asked dozens of artists to record short videos at home for its ongoing series Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts . So far, the lineup ranges from Ameri- can rapper Fat Joe to classical pianist Lang Lang. The 17-minute video with Bullock and Reif, which aired last December and is still available on NPR’s and Bullock’s websites, displays her extraordinary flair for thoughtful programming. Opening with a gentle Schubert lied, it moves on to Kurt Weill’s Wie lange noch ( How Much Longer ), a fierce, bitter love song writ- ten during World War II. The video closes with the spiritual City Called Heaven , and I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free by Billy Taylor. Taylor wrote the song during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, and Bull- ock’s performance was arranged by jazz pianist Jeremy Siskind. Each song expresses some aspect of longing for deliverance and yearning for peace. “I get inspiration from a lot of different places,” said Bullock. “Sometimes it takes years to come up with a recital program. There’s always some sort of through line to themes that arise, the material I’m drawn to. [I’m not] siphoning it off into a program solely focused on folk music or blues tunes or jazz. Through my classical training, I’m always leaning toward a full integration of my voice. So, whatever I’m imagining or how I’m wanting a phrase to unfold, it can happen in whatever context. My musical interests are really wide. I like sharing the variety of material. I’m excited to share it.” As the pandemic starts to recede, Bullock’s live performance calendar is filling up once again. This summer, in addition to Ravinia, she will be appearing at music festivals in Aspen, CO; Bregenz, Austria; Sun Valley, ID; and the Grant Teton Festival in Wy- oming. In January and February, she sings the title role in a new produc- tion of Handel’s Theodora at London’s Royal Opera House. “I’ve had a few performances in Europe for reduced audiences,” Bullock said, “but I can’t wait for the physical sensation of being surround- ed by so many people. There’s nothing like that in the world.” Wynne Delacoma was classical music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1991 to 2006 and has been an adjunct journalism faculty member at Northwestern University. She is a freelance music critic, writer, and lecturer. RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 1 – JULY 23, 2021 32