Julian Perkins

Biography

Dubbed ‘‘The Indiana Jones of Early Music’’ by BBC Radio 3, Julian Perkins brings a dynamic and adventurous spirit to all his music-making. Of dual British-Italian citizenship, he enjoys a busy and varied career as a conductor/director, chamber musician and solo keyboard player. He is Artistic Director of Portland Baroque Orchestra in Oregon, USA and, in the UK, Artistic Director of Cambridge Handel Opera and Founder Director of the period-instrument ensemble Sounds Baroqu

Julian was shortlisted for the 2021 Gramophone Award for his recording of Eccles’s Semele with the Academy of Ancient Music and Cambridge Handel Opera. He has been praised in print as both conductor and keyboard soloist for his ‘‘demonic intensity’’ (BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Month), ‘‘fluid and natural pacing’’ (Gramophone Editor's Choice) and ‘‘verve and suavity’’ (Classical Music), conducting ‘‘as if every bar means the world to him’’ (Opera Disc of the Month), and giving ‘‘performances that reach to the heart of the music’’ (International Record Review). 

With Sounds Baroque, Julian has directed many acclaimed performances with such singers as Dame Emma Kirkby, Helen Charlston, Anna Dennis, Rebecca Evans, Mark Padmore, Christopher Purves, Ashley Riches, Carolyn Sampson and Lawrence Zazzo. He has directed numerous instrumental groups and choirs ranging from the Academy of Ancient Music, Croatian Baroque Ensemble and New London Singers to the Northern Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of Welsh National Opera and St Paul's Sinfonia, and has worked closely with conductors including Ivor Bolton, Christopher Hogwood, Vladimir Jurowski and Trevor Pinnock. He has also led more than twenty Baroque projects with Southbank Sinfonia and conducted a wide range of successful staged opera productions. His frequent appearances directing Sounds Baroque include ground-breaking performances of newly-minted pasticcio operas, co-created with librettist Stephen Pettitt, which tell cogent stories, challenging notions of “authenticity”.

As a keyboard player, Julian often performs at the Salzburg Festival and has given concerto performances with ensembles including the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Florilegium and Orchestra of The Sixteen. He has appeared as solo harpsichordist/fortepianist with the BayerischeStaatsoper in Munich, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and has been featured on All Classical Radio and BBC Radio 3, and performed as a soloist at many prestigious venues such as London’s Wigmore Hall, New York’s Lincoln Center and Sydney Opera House. In addition to numerous Baroque and Classical works, his prize-winning discography includes world-première recordings of ​modern pieces by​ composers such as Stephen Dodgson, Iain Farrington, Nicola Lefanu, Peter Maxwell Davies, Rhian Samuel and Héloïse Werner. 

Julian read music at Cambridge University before pursuing advanced studies at the Schola Cantorum, Basel, the Royal Academy of Music, London, and privately with conductor David Parry and harpsichordist Trevor Pinnock. An advocate of what he terms ‘‘Historically Inspired Performance’’, he enjoys giving masterclasses both at music colleges and universities in the UK and abroad and at the National Opera Studio in London. He has also written a variety of published articles on performance practice and devised Handel’s Green Room, a series of online discussions, with Cambridge Handel Opera and the scholar Dr Ruth Smith.