Julian Perkins has a wealth of operatic experience as a conductor, continuo player, and repetiteur, and is a music coach at the National Opera Studio in London.

In addition to performances and recordings as a continuo player at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Julian works for many companies both in the UK and abroad. He will conduct Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera for the Dutch National Opera Studio in 2012, and has conducted staged performances of Telemann's Pimpinone for the Buxton Festival, Arne’s Artaxerxes for New Chamber Opera, a Baroque-inspired play for New Kent Opera, Tom Cunningham’s The Okavango Macbeth for the Cambridge Summer Music Festival, and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Handel's Theodora for Benslow Music - where he will be returning in 2012 to conduct Handel's Semele. 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 with whom Julian has worked in operas include Harry Christophers, Laurence Cummings, Christian Curnyn, Paul Goodwin, Christopher Hogwood CBE, Philip Pickett, and Trevor Pinnock CBE. Other leading conductors for whom Julian has performed with singers include Harry Bicket, William Christie, Bernard Labadie, Paul McCreesh, Nicholas McGegan OBE, Sir Roger Norrington, and the late Sir Charles Mackerras.

Julian has performed as a continuo player in staged productions of Bach's St Matthew Passion, Cavalli’s Erismena, Galuppi’s Il mondo alla roversa, Handel’s Acis and Galatea, Ariodante, Atalanta, Jephtha, Orlando, Poro, Samson, Saul, Semele, and Tolomeo (and in concert versions of Arianna in Creta, Belshazzar, Flavio, Judas Maccabaeus, Theodora, La Resurrezione and, of course, Messiah), Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Mozart’s Ascanio in Alba, and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, The Fairy Queen, and King Arthur. Other productions on which he has assisted include Cavalli’s La Calisto, Handel’s Hercules, Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, Tamerlano, and Teseo, Haydn’s The Apothecary, Lully’s Armide, Monteverdi’s Book III of madrigals, and Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona. He often gives recitals and has collaborated with various winners of the Kathleen Ferrier Awards and London Handel Singing Competition, as well as distinguished artists such as James Bowman CBE.



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.