Julian Perkins

Julian Perkins is Artistic Director of Portland Baroque Orchestra in Oregon, USA and Artistic Director of Cambridge Handel Opera and Founder Director of the period-instrument ensemble Sounds Baroque.

Shortlisted for the 2021 Gramophone Award for his recording of Eccles’s Semele with the Academy of Ancient Music and Cambridge Handel Opera, Julian Perkins has been praised as both conductor and keyboard soloist for his ‘‘demonic intensity’’ (BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Month), ‘‘fluid and natural pacing’’ (Gramophone) and ‘‘verve and suavity’’ (Classical Music), giving ‘‘performances that reach to the heart of the music’’ (International Record Review).

He has conducted the Northern Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera, Southbank Sinfonia and opera productions for Bampton Classical Opera, Buxton International Festival, Cambridge Handel Opera, Kings Place, Netherlands Opera Academy, New Chamber Opera, New Kent Opera and Snape Maltings.

As a keyboard player, Julian Perkins performs regularly at the Salzburg Festival and 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 for the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Welsh National Opera and others. He features regularly on BBC Radio 3’s Early Music Show and In Tune and has performed at Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center and Sydney Opera House. He has also premièred many works and co-commissioned pieces by Stephen Dodgson, Iain Farrington and Héloïse Werner. Duo recitals include appearances for the Mozart Society of America, the Oxford Lieder Festival and the Royal Opera House with a wide range of distinguished singers and instrumentalists.

Julian Perkins studied at Cambridge University, Schola Cantorum, Basel, the Royal Academy of Music, London, and privately with conductor David Parry and harpsichordist Trevor Pinnock. He gives masterclasses in the UK and abroad and at the National Opera Studio in London.