JULIEN VAN MELLAERTS

Winner of the Maureen Forrester Prize and the German Lied Award at the 2018 Concours Musical International de Montréal, Winner of the 2017 Wigmore Hall / Kohn Foundation International Song Competition, the 2017 Kathleen Ferrier Awards, and the 2015 Maureen Lehane Vocal Arts Award, British / New Zealand baritone Julien Van Mellaerts studied at the University of Otago, before joining the International Opera School of the Royal College of Music. His studies have been supported by the 2016 Kiwi Music Scholarship, a 2016 Countess of Munster Award, the Hunn Trust and the ongoing support of the Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation. He graduated in Summer 2017, having been a Fishmongers Company Scholar, supported by a Toeman Weinberger Award studying with Russell Smythe. On Graduation in 2017 he was awarded the Tagore Gold Medal. He is also a scholar and alumnus of the 2017 Verbier Festival Academy, the 2018 Heidelberger Frühling Lied Academy with Thomas Hampson and the 2018 Bayreuth Festspiele Stipendium.



Since graduating, he has toured with James Baillieu for Chamber Music New Zealand and given recitals with Julius Drake at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin, the Enniskillen International Beckett Festival, for the Juan March Foundation, Madrid, and at Temple Song, London. Further recital engagements have included A Heine Liederkreis at Oxford Lieder, the Lied Festival Victoria de Los Ángeles (LIFE Victoria), Barcelona, with Simon Lepper and appearances at Leeds Lieder, the Lewes Song Festival the London Song Festival and Oxford Lieder. With the Royal Ballet, he appeared in Elizabethat the Barbican Hall.



He also sang The Referee Mozart vs Machine for Mahogany Opera Group, Schaunard La bohème for Opera Holland Park Young Artists and New Zealand Opera, the title role in Stanford’s The Travelling Companion for New Sussex Opera, Harlequin Ariadne auf Naxos for Longborough Festival Opera, the title role in Eugene Onegin for Cambridge Philharmonic Society, Mr Fezziwigin the premiere of Will Todd’s A Christmas Carol for Opera Holland Park, Britten War Requiem in Lincoln and Salisbury Cathedrals, Copland Old American Songs with the Joensuu City Orchestra, Messiah with the Orchestra of St John’s, Mahler Kindertotenlieder with the Kensington Symphony Orchestra and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen on tour with the Israel Camerata.



Singing under conductors including Joana Carneiro, Asher Fisch, Valeri Gergiev, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Fabio Mastrangelo, Mathieu Romano and Sir András Schiff, his current engagements include Silvio Pagliacci with the Israeli Opera, Count AlmavivaLe nozze diFigarofor Opera Holland Park, FigaroLe nozze di Figaro at Salzburg MozartWoche 2020, Papageno Die Zauberflöte and The One-Eyed BrotherDie Frau ohne Schatten at the 2019 Verbier Festival, Mangus The Knot Garden for English Touring Opera, an Opera Galawith the Sevastopol Symphony Orchestra, J. S. Bach B Minor Mass with the New London Orchestra, Brahms German Requiem with Ensemble Aedes and Les Siècles, Mozart Coronation Masswith the London Mozart Players at the 2020 Newbury Festival, Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Ana Quintans at the Teatro Sao Carlos, Lisbon, performances of A Sea Symphony with the Northern Chamber Orchestra and Worcester Festival Choral Society, He will return to the Verbier Festival in 2020 to singMasettoDonGiovanniconducted by Gabor Takácz-Nagy.



Recital engagements include a recital with Catriona Morrison and Julius Drake for the Gustav Mahler FESTIVAL Amsterdam 2020, Schubert Die schöne Müllerinwith Jocelyn Freeman at Blackheath Halls and with Daniel Gerzenberg at the Piano Salon Christophori, Berlin, Schumann Dichterliebe(arranged by John Lubbock) with the Orchestra of St John’s, Wolf Italienisches Liederbuch with Mary Bevan and Joseph Middletonfor Leeds Lieder, The Sexual Outsider – Settings of Walt Whitman for the 2019 London Song Festival, a return to the Wigmore Hall with James Baillieu, a recital with Joseph Middleton for Northern Ireland Opera’s Glenarm Festival of Voice, a recital with Simon Lepper for Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge,and a return to LIFE Victoria with Christiane Karg and Simon Lepper.



Julien Van Mellaerts represented New Zealand at Cardiff Singer of the World 2019. His broadcasts and recordings include Britten War Requiem(Siren Media), Songs by Duparc, Richard Strauss and Vaughan Williams (Classic fM), In Tune and LunchtimeRecitals (BBC Radio 3), Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Rádio Clásica España) Die Zauberflöte, DieFrauohneSchattenand Salome(Medici TV) and TheTravellingCompanion(SOMM Recordings).