The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University

Phyllis Bryn-Julson premiered works by the world's foremost composers, including Boulez, Brubeck, Davidovsky, Del Tredici, Felciano, Hoiby, Holliger, Ligeti, Moret, Moss, Rhodes, Rorem, Wilson, and Wuorinen.  Each of these composers created works for her extraordinary voice.  The Lament of Michal for soprano and orchestra by Phillip Rhodes was premiered by Phylis Bryn-Julson and the Louisville Orchestra with Jorge Mester conducting on April 3, 1970.  The work was recorded on the 100th Anniversary Disc [LS-704] of the Louisville Orchestra First Edition Recordings.  The original scores and parts written for or dedicated to Ms. Bryn-Julson bear the personal signatures and dedications of the composers, as well as her own performance markings.  Richard Felciano inscribed his score to An American Decameron:  "For dear Phyllis, who 8 times gave me the Privilege of writing for her.  Thank you!!  Baci, Richard"

The collection of original scores also includes Del Tredici's "In Memory of a Summer Day", which won the Pulitzer Prize for  Composition in 1980.  David Del Tredici's Alice works, also in the collection, are significant for the large number of variant scores that represent significant changes of a major work-in-progress.  Del Tredici blamed Bryn-Julson for his success as a composer.

This extraordinary collection contains concert and recital programs documenting her performances with every major European and North American symphony orchestra under many of the world's leading conductors, including Pierre Boulez, Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa and Zubin Mehta.   The Phyllis-Bryn-Julson collection also includes extensive documentation on her concert tours, including correspondence, press coverage, schedules and printed ephemera.  The Papers of  Phyllis Bryn-Julson is one of the most important collections of contemporary vocal music and related documentation in America.

Related Collections:

The Archives of the Peabody Institute also holds the collection of composer Asger Hamerik, an ardent champion of American Music in the 19th century, John Charles Thomas who premiered works by many of America's best-known composers in the first half of the 20th century, and the works of a host of American composers with ties to the Peabody that include Dominick Argento, Earl Brown, Ernst Krenek, Elam Ray Sprenkle and Gustav Strube.  The Bryn-Julson collection extends the breadth of contemporary American music in the collection to the 21st century.

Biographical information on Phyllis Bryn-Julson may be found here.