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The English and keyboard player (harpsichord, fortepiano and clavichord), Julian Perkins, read music at King’s College, Cambridge, before pursuing advanced studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and the Royal Academy of Music, London. Singing is central to his approach to music; the prestigious Baylis programme at English National Opera and tours with the Monteverdi Choir (Director: John Eliot Gardiner) were formative experiences. His mentors have included Noelle Barker OBE, David Parry and Trevor Pinnock CBE.
Described as ‘exuberantly stylish’ by the Sunday Times, Julian Perkins enjoys a demanding career as a conductor and keyboard player. He is the Artistic Director of Cambridge Handel Opera and Founder Director of Sounds Baroque. He has conducted staged opera productions for organisations including the Buxton International Festival, Cambridge Handel Opera, Grimeborn Festival, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Kings Place, Netherlands Opera Academy, New Chamber Opera and New Kent Opera, in addition to numerous concert performances with, among others, the Bampton Classical Players, Barts Chamber Choir, Bury Court Opera, New London Singers, Rodolfus Choir, Southbank Sinfonia and Spiritato. With Sounds Baroque, he has directed performances with singers including Rebecca Evans, Dame Emma Kirkby and Mark Padmore, and has conducted some 18 Baroque projects with Southbank Sinfonia, in which modern string players experience performing earlier music on gut strings with Baroque bows. Forthcoming conducting projects include John Eccles's Semele with Cambridge Handel Opera and the Academy of Ancient Music (to be recorded on AAM Records), and the world premiere recording of Stephen Dodgson’s opera Margaret Catchpole for Naxos. Chamber concerts include his return to London's Wigmore Hall, and concerto performances plus a recording with Florilegium. 2019 sees his solo American debut in Boston.
As a harpsichordist and organist, Julian Perkins has performed concertos with groups including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Orchestra of The Sixteen, and New London Soloists and has gained a wealth of experience performing with many leading period instrument ensembles and modern orchestras. In addition to performing as the solo harpsichordist in productions at the Royal Opera House, Welsh National Opera and Northern Ireland Opera, he has featured on BBC Radio 3's Early Music Show and appeared at venues such as London's Wigmore Hall, New York's Lincoln Center and Sydney Opera House, as well as at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh International Festival. Clavichord solo recitals in the UK have included appearances for international festivals at St Albans, Buxton, Canterbury, Deal, Lammermuir, Northern Aldborough, Oundle, Petworth, Roman River, Ryedale, Swaledale and Two Moors that have included complete performances of J.S. Bach's two books of Das Wohltemperierte Klavier.
His discography includes acclaimed opera, solo and chamber recordings for Avie, Chandos, Channel Classics, Coro, Hyperion, Opus Arte and Resonus Classics on a wide range of instruments, His discography has seen acclaimed solo and chamber recordings for Avie, Coro, Chandos, Opus Arte and Resonus Classics on a wide range of instruments, including the Royal harpsichord by Burkat Shudi at Kew Palace. These have included world premiere recordings playing Stephen Dodgson's clavichord suites, harpsichord suites by James Nares and John Christopher Smith, and directing Daniel Purcell’s opera-oratorio The Judgment of Paris..
A visiting teacher at the Royal Northern College of Music, Julian Perkins is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, and was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in recognition of his contribution thus far to the music profession. Research is an essential element in his performing career, and he has written articles that have been published by Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press and Rhinegold Publishing. This also inspires his work as a visiting coach at the Royal Opera House, and master-classes that he gives for the National Opera Studio, music colleges and universities both in the UK and abroad. |
