Julian Perkins gets a fizzing performance out of the Academy of Ancient Music 

Financial Times

Julian Perkins is Artistic Director of Portland Baroque Orchestra in Oregon, USA. Based in the UK, he is also Founding Artistic Director of Cambridge Handel Opera and Sounds Baroque. Shortlisted for the 2021 Gramophone Award, he has directed groups ranging from the Academy of Ancient Music to the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, has performed regularly as a chamber musician at the Salzburg Festival and features widely as a solo keyboard player.

2025 to date...

Julian's concerts with Portland Baroque Orchestra include the world première of Rhian Samuel's Gwanwyn ('Spring'), commissioned by the orchestra. In addition to numerous chamber concerts and solo recitals, 2025 sees Julian perform double harpsichord concertos with Ian Pritchard and Tesserae Baroque in Los Angeles, return to Oberlin Bach Festival to direct a tour of Bach's re-constructed Markus Passion, return to Croatian Baroque Orchestra to direct performances of Dinner with Handel (a pasticcio opera that Julian co-created with librettist Stephen Pettitt), and perform with tenor James Gilchrist and Sounds Baroque for Coram's Handel Birthday Concert. His world-première recording of John Weldon's The Judgment of Paris with Academy of Ancient Music and Cambridge Handel Opera comes out on the AAM label, and a recital disc of Purcell's songs with mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston and Sounds Baroque appears on BIS Records. 

In the Autumn, Julian gives masterclasses at the Juilliard School in New York and the Venice Conservatory.