Julian Perkins is gaining a wealth of operatic experience as a conductor, continuo player, and repetiteur.

In addition to performances as a continuo player at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Julian has worked for many organizations including Birmingham Opera Company, Buxton Festival, Classical Opera Company, Dartington International Music Festival, Early Opera Company, English Touring Opera, Handel Halle Festival, Independent Opera, London Handel Festival, Opera Atelier, Opera Restor’d, and Transition Opera. He has conducted Arne’s Artaxerxes for New Chamber Opera, a Baroque-inspired play for New Kent Opera, and will be conducting Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas for Benslow Baroque Opera in 2010. As director of Sounds Baroque, Julian has conducted performances of Charpentier’s La descente d’Orphée aux Enfers, Handel’s Acis and Galatea, Alcina, Aminta e Fillide, and Apollo e Dafne, and the first modern UK production of A. Scarlatti’s La Giuditta.

Leading conductors and directors with whom Julian has worked in operas include Harry Christophers, James Conway, Christopher Cowell, Laurence Cummings, Christian Curnyn, Steven Devine, Christopher Hogwood CBE, Trevor Pinnock CBE, Daniel Slater, and Graham Vick. 

Julian has also performed as a continuo player in staged productions of Galuppi’s Il mondo alla roversa, Handel’s Acis and Galatea, Ariodante, Atalanta, Orlando, Poro, Samson, Semele, and Tolomeo, and in concert versions of Arianna in Creta, Belshazzar, Flavio, Judas Maccabaeus, Theodora, La Resurrezione (and, of course, Messiah), Mozart’s Ascanio in Alba, and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Other productions on which he has assisted include Cavalli’s La Calisto and Erismena, Handel’s Hercules, Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, Tamerlano, and Teseo, Haydn’s The Apothecary, Lully’s Armide, Monteverdi’s Orfeo and Book III of madrigals, and Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona. He is also an official accompanist for the annual London Handel Singing Competition.




When time permits, Julian Perkins sings bass-baritone. He has performed in a number of professional consorts and choirs including the BBC Singers, Monteverdi Choir, and Philharmonia Voices, and has also sung solo and recorded with the Parley of Instruments.