92NY presents Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment & Julia Bullock

The 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY), one of New York’s leading cultural venues, presents the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment & Julia Bullock, soprano performing The Golden Age of the Baroque on Thursday, January 23, 2025 at 7:30pm ET on the David Geffen Stage at Kaufmann Concert Hall. Tickets start at $40 and are available at https://www.92ny.org/event/oae-and-julia-bullock.

The UK’s preeminent Baroque ensemble, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, makes its first 92NY appearance joined by vocal star Julia Bullock, the artist the Los Angeles Times has called “an essential soprano for our times,” in her own 92NY debut. The Grammy Award-winning Bullock continues to astound the music world with her lustrous voice, probing intellect, and remarkable versatility, dazzling in her Metropolitan Opera debut last season in John Adams’ El Niño. Together, they perform the greatest hits of the Baroque era – arias by Handel, Purcell, Rameau, and Lully, including the glorious “Let the Bright Seraphim,” alongside instrumental masterworks by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and Pachelbel. The complete program will feature:

HANDEL Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, from Solomon

HANDEL “Verdi Prati,” from Alcina

VIVALDI Concerto No. 1 in E Major, “Spring”

BACH Air, from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major

PURCELL Suite from The Fairy Queen

PACHELBEL Canon in D Major

HANDEL “Da Tempeste,” from Giulio Cesare in Egitto

RAMEAU Les sauvages, from Les Indes galantes

PURCELL Sonata for Trumpet, Strings, and Basso Continuo in D Major

PURCELL “If Love’s a Sweet Passion, ” from The Fairy Queen

BACH Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major

STROZZI “Che si può fare?”

TELEMANN Selections from Ouverture-Suite, “Hamburger Ebb and Fluth”

LULLY March for the Ceremony of the Turks, from Le Bourgeois gentilhomme

HANDEL “Let the Bright Seraphim,” from Samson

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

In 1986, a group of inquisitive London musicians took a long hard look at that curious institution we call the Orchestra, and decided to start again from scratch. They began by throwing out the rulebook. Put a single conductor in charge? No way. Specialise in repertoire of a particular era? Too restricting. Perfect a work and then move on? Too lazy. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment was born.

And as this distinctive ensemble playing on period-specific instruments began to get a foothold, it made a promise to itself. It vowed to keep questioning, adapting and inventing as long as it lived. Residencies at the Southbank Centre and the Glyndebourne Festival didn’t numb its experimentalist bent. Record deals didn’t iron out its quirks. Instead, the OAE examined musical notes with ever more freedom and resolve.

That creative thirst remains unquenched. The Night Shift series of informal performances taking place in pubs and bars redefines concert formats. Its association with another London venue, Kings Place, has fostered further diversity of musicmaking including the innovative series Bach, the Universe and Everything.

The OAE continues to tour around the UK – appearing in the major cities and concert halls as well as towns that most orchestras don’t check in to – and internationally. In 2024/25, the OAE performs at the Brucknerhaus in Linz, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Musikverein in Vienna, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, in Copenhagen, Budapest, Graz, Antwerp, Munich, Zurich and on tour to the USA and Asia.

The OAE has never had a music director. It enjoys many long-term collaborations and the title of Principal Artist is currently held by John Butt, Sir Mark Elder, Adam Fischer, Iván Fischer, Vladimir Jurowski, Sir Simon Rattle and Sir András Schiff.

In keeping with its values of always questioning, challenging and trailblazing, in September 2020, the OAE became the resident orchestra of Acland Burghley School in Camden (London). The residency – a first for a British orchestra – allows the OAE to live, work and play amongst the students of the school.

For more information, please visit https://oae.co.uk/.

Julia Bullock

Combining versatile artistry with a probing intellect and commanding stage presence, American classical singer Julia Bullock has headlined productions and concerts at preeminent arts institutions worldwide.

Last season, she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in John Adams’ El Niño and Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu in the European premier of that composer’s Antony & Cleopatra. She previously debuted at San Francisco Opera in the world premiere of Adams’ Girls of the Golden West and at Santa Fe Opera in his Doctor Atomic. She made her debut at Covent Garden in Handel’s Theodora, at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in Stravinsky’s The Rake's Progress, and at English National Opera, Teatro Real and Bolshoi Theatre in the title role of Purcell’s The Indian Queen. Other operatic highlights include the world premieres of Michael van der Aa’s Upload at Dutch National Opera and Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

In concert, she has appeared with the world's foremost orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and London Symphony Orchestra, while recital highlights include appearances at Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Celebrity Series, the Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall and the Mostly Mozart and Ojai Music festivals.

Her signature projects include Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine, conceived in collaboration with theater director Peter Sellars, composer Tyshawn Sorey, and poet and playwright Claudia Rankine; Five Freedom Songs, developed with Jessie Montgomery; and History's Persistent Voice, which combines the songs of enslaved people with new music by Black American women. Released by Nonesuch, Bullock’s solo album debut, Walking in the Dark, won the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal.

Her discography also includes the soundtrack of Amazon Prime Video’s The Underground Railroad and Grammy-nominated recordings of West Side Story and Doctor Atomic. An innovative and in-demand curator, Bullock's past positions include collaborative partner of the San Francisco Symphony and artist-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and London’s Guildhall School.

Committed to integrating community activism with her musical life, she is a prominent voice for social consciousness and change. https://juliabullock.com/

About The 92nd Street Y, New York: The 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY) is a world-class center for the arts and innovation, a convener of ideas, and an incubator for creativity. 92NY offers extensive classes, courses and events online including live concerts, talks and master classes; fitness classes for all ages; 250+ art classes, and parenting workshops for new moms and dads. The 92nd Street Y, New York is transforming the way people share ideas and translate them into action all over the world. All of 92NY's programming is built on a foundation of Jewish values, including the capacity of civil dialogue to change minds; the potential of education and the arts to change lives; and a commitment to welcoming and serving people of all ages, races, religions, and ethnicities. For more information, visit http://www.92NY.org.