Julia Bullock & Christian Reif: Tiny Desk Concert

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Julia Bullock & Christian Reif: Tiny Desk Concert with tags npr, npr music, national public radio, live, performance, tiny desk, tiny desk concert, tony desk, tiny concert

Tom Huizenga | March 26, 2025

Many months ago, when Julia Bullock was mapping out her Tiny Desk appearance, the emails about repertoire started flying back and forth. She was meticulously stitching together seemingly disparate songs: some blues, folk, classical, some far off-the-beaten-path singer-songwriter material and a song she'd never sung in public, written for her wedding.

I've learned not to expect a tidy bouquet of German lieder when Bullock gives a recital. Yes, she tips her hat here to Schubert with a feisty rendition of "Rastlose Liebe," a two-minute tribute to restless love. Yet this concert spans 350 years, from Barbara Strozzi's 17th century lament "Che si può fare," sung with palpable foreboding, to the public premiere of "Love Liberates," by Nathaniel Stookey, to words by Maya Angelou.

Bullock has an affinity for Connie Converse, the enigmatic, mid-century singer-songwriter who mysteriously disappeared in 1974. "Talkin' Like You (Two Tall Mountains)" celebrates independence, while an abbreviated version of "I Have Considered the Lilies," turns a perky paean into a private supplication.

Bullock's meditative mixtape ends in safe haven, with Odetta's bluesy arrangement of "Going Home," a song rooted in Dvořák's "New World" Symphony. Bullock reaches into her burgundy lower register, and pianist Christian Reif depresses the soft pedal, to achieve maximum comfort.

These songs refract love in various tints, and further illustrate why Bullock is one of today's most discerning and expressive singers. Contemporary composers are particularly enamored, including John Adams, whose new opera Antony and Cleopatra Bullock will debut at the Metropolitan Opera in May.

If you want to know how to program and deliver a vocal recital, this is your masterclass.

SET LIST

Lovie Austin & Alberta Hunter: "Downhearted Blues"

Barbara Strozzi: "Che si può fare"

Nathaniel Stookey: "Love Liberates"

Franz Schubert: "Rastlose Liebe"

Connie Converse (arr. Bretton Brown): "Talkin' Like You (Two Tall Mountains)"

Connie Converse (arr. Bretton Brown): "I Have Considered the Lilies"

Antonín Dvořák (arr. Odetta/Bretton Brown): "Going Home"

MUSICIANS

Julia Bullock: vocals

Christian Reif: piano