Julia Bullock, soprano; Seth Parker Woods, cello; Conor Hanick, piano

Powerhouse musicians Julia Bullock, Seth Parker Woods, and Conor Hanick unite for an evening that showcases titan composers of lyricism and storytelling from the 20th and 21st centuries.

Bullock is a Grammy-winning classical singer and artist whose commanding operatic voice has conquered every genre from Baroque to contemporary. A three-time Grammy nominee, Woods has garnered a reputation for his versatile and inventive musicality, earning him global acclaim and the 2022 Chamber Music America Michael Jaffee Visionary Award. Hanick, a pianist praised for his precision and articulation of classic and contemporary fare, rounds out the trio. 

Bullock has handpicked selections she loves for this rich evening of music for voice, piano, and cello. Together, the musicians perform the works of George Walker, John Tavener, Ravel, Andre Previn, and Nina Simone, as well as a center co-commissioned work by lauded Cuban-American composer Tania León.

Julia Bullock, soprano

One of Musical America’s 2021 Artists of the Year, Julia Bullock is an American classical singer who “communicates intense, authentic feeling, as if she were singing right from her soul,” according to Opera News. Combining versatile artistry with a probing intellect and commanding stage presence, she has headlined productions and concerts at preeminent arts institutions around the world.

An innovative curator in high demand from a diverse group of organizations, she has held positions including collaborative partner of Esa-Pekka Salonen and 2019-2020 artist-in-residence at the San Francisco Symphony, 2020–2022 artist-in-residence of London’s Guildhall School, and 2018-2019 artist-in-residence at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Bullock’s opera debuts include San Francisco Opera in the world premiere of Girls of the Golden West; Santa Fe Opera in Doctor Atomic; Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and Dutch National Opera in The Rake’s Progress; the English National Opera, Teatro Real, and Bolshoi Theatre in the title role of The Indian Queen; and Dutch National Opera, Bregenzer Festspiele, and Park Avenue Armory in the premiere of Michel van der Aa’s Upload.

In concert, she has collaborated with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, London’s Philharmonia, and London Symphony Orchestras, while her recital highlights include appearances at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Celebrity Series, Washington’s Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, and the Mostly Mozart and Ojai Music festivals. 

Released by Nonesuch, Bullock’s solo album debut, Walking in the Dark, was featured in the New York Times’s “Best Classical Music Tracks of 2022” and named one of the “Ten Best Classical Albums of 2022” by NPR. Her growing discography also includes Grammy-nominated accounts of West Side Story and Doctor Atomic, as well as the soundtrack of Amazon Prime Video’s 2021 The Underground Railroad, composed by Nicholas Britell. 

Committed to integrating community activism with her musical life, Bullock is also a prominent voice for social consciousness and change. Combining versatile artistry with a probing intellect and commanding stage presence, she has headlined productions and concerts at preeminent arts institutions around the world. 

Seth Parker Woods, cello

Cellist Seth Parker Woods has established his reputation as a versatile artist and innovator across multiple genres, prompting the New York Times to write, “Woods is an artist rooted in classical music, but whose cello is a vehicle that takes him, and his concertgoers, on wide-ranging journeys.” Woods has served on the faculty of the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California since 2022 and was appointed to the Robert Mann Chair in 2024.

Recent and upcoming performance highlights include the world premiere of Nathalie Joachim’s cello concerto Had to Be at Spoleto Festival USA, followed by its New York premiere in Woods’ debut with the New York Philharmonic, and his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut in the world premiere of a new cello concerto by Julia Adolphe. Woods' autobiographical tour-de-force Difficult Grace toured around the U.S. before being released as an album by Cedille Records that was nominated for the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo.

He performed with Hilary Hahn at Konzerthaus Dortmund in Germany and toured a new version of John Adams’ El Niño: Nativity Reconsidered with American Modern Opera Company. A core member of the music collective Wild Up, Woods was nominated for 2023 and 2025 Grammy Awards with the group for its releases of the music of Julius Eastman.

In addition to his post at the University of Southern California, Woods serves on the artist faculty of the Music Academy of the West each summer. He holds degrees from Brooklyn College and Musik Akademie der Stadt Basel, as well as a Ph.D. from the University of Huddersfield. 

Conor Hanick, piano

Pianist Conor Hanick is regarded as one of his generation’s most inquisitive interpreters of music new and old, whose “technical refinement, color, crispness and wondrous variety of articulation benefit works by any master,” according to the New York Times. 

Hanick has recently worked with conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen, Ludovic Morlot, Alan Gilbert, and David Robertson; collaborated with the San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Orchestra Iowa, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Juilliard Orchestra; and been presented by the Gilmore Festival, New York Philharmonic, Elbphilharmonie, De Singel, Centre Pompidou, Cal Performances, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Park Avenue Armory, and the Ojai Festival, where in 2022 with the American Modern Opera Company, he served as the festival’s artistic director.

A fierce advocate for the music of today, Hanick has premiered over 200 pieces and collaborated with composers ranging from Pierre Boulez, Kaija Saariaho, and Steve Reich, to the leading composers of his generation, including Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, Tyshawn Sorey, Anthony Cheung, and Samuel Carl Adams, whose piano concerto, No Such Spring, he premiered in 2023 with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony. 

This season Hanick presents solo and chamber recitals in the U.S. and Europe, including concerts at the Wallis, Cal Performances, Segerstrom Center, Stanford Live, Guild Hall, Musikverein, and elsewhere. He is the director of solo piano at the Music Academy of the West and serves on the faculty of the Juilliard School, Mannes College, and the CUNY Graduate Center. 

This is the first performance at the center for Bullock and Hanick. Woods first performed at the center with Wild Up in 2019.

Photos by Allison Michael Orenstein, Ben Gibbs, Jason Smith, and Laura Desberg