Julien Van Mellaerts & Dylan Perez
Biography Julien Van Mellaerts & Dylan Perez
Julien van Mellaerts
Praised for his “charisma and vocal elegance” by Das Opernmagazin, multi-award winning New Zealand baritone Julien Van Mellaerts is highly sought after as both a recitalist and on the operatic stage. He won first prize in both the prestigious Wigmore Hall International Song Competition and the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, and represented New Zealand at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World in 2019. A graduate of the Royal College of Music International Opera School, and recipient of the coveted Tagore Gold Medal, Van Mellaerts has had great success in recent role and house debuts at the Verbier Festival, Salzburg Mozartwoche, Opéra National de Lorraine, Opera Holland Park and New Zealand Opera. Julien Van Mellaerts has recently been awarded the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation Laureate 2024, recognising his enterprise and success both on and off the stage. In December 2025, Julien was invited to join the board of trustees for the Laidlaw Opera Trust.
Recent operatic debuts include Renato in Un Ballo in Maschera with Wellington Opera, Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Palermo Classica International Festival, Duke of Nottingham in Roberto Devereux at Theater Ulm, Petrucci in Lucrezia Borgia at Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville (to be released on Prima Classic later this year). Upcoming performances include Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro with New Zealand Opera, Dr Falke in Die Fledermaus at Opera Holland Park, and the sixth season of "Opera in Song" at Opera Holland Park, a series of operatically themed recitals, co-directed with Dylan Perez. Recent concert and recital performances have included Baritone soloist in Carmina Burana at the Royal Festival Hall in London, a recital of Schubert at Salle Bourgie in Montreal on Radio Canada and BBC Radio 3 with Ian Tindale and Harriet Burns, and a disc with Delphian Records of Schubert and Errollyn Wallen, with pianist Dylan Perez, set for release this June 2026.
Recently, Van Mellaerts sang his first Wozzeck in the New Zealand premiere of the work with Orchestra Wellington; role debut of Frank in Puccini’s Edgar at Opera Holland Park; Frédéric in Lakmé at the Cadogan Hall; a return to the Israeli Opera as Schaunard in La Bohème; and a return to New Zealand Opera for his role debut as Guglielmo in Cosí fan tutte.
Concert and recital performances include returns to the Wigmore Hall, Oxford International Song Festival, and Presteigne Festival; Bach and Vaughan Williams with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with Harry Bicket, the fifth season of his song series Opera in Song at Opera Holland Park, Schwanengesang/The Lake at Casa de las Artes in Porto; and the release of Songs of the Night on Champs Hill Records with Lucy Colquhoun and Rowan Pierce, and Francis Poulenc: Les oeuvres de sa jeunesse with the Manchester Camerata and John Andrews on Resonus Classics (April 2024).
Previous operatic engagements have included Figaro Le nozze di Figaro and Masetto Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Mozartwoche, Papageno, Masetto and Die Einäugige Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Verbier Festival, Oreste Iphigénie en Tauride Opéra National de Lorraine, Count Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro Opera Holland Park, Silvio I Pagliacci at the Israeli Opera, Duke of Nottingham Roberto Devereux at the Badisches Staatstheater, Garibaldo Rodelina at the Göttingen International Handel Festival (on Accent Records/DVD), Ned Keene Peter Grimes St Endellion Festival, The Ferryman Curlew River in Moscow, and he made his debut with the Royal Opera House in ELIZABETH with the Royal Ballet.
In concert and recital, Van Mellaerts has sung Mahler Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Jonothan Heyward, Vaughan Williams with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem with Les Siècles and Ensemble Aedes on tour in France, Beethoven with Symphonia Varsovia at La Folle Journée Nantes, Copland Old American Songs with Joensuu City Orchestra Finland, and Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with the Israel Camerata. Recitals with Julius Drake, James Baillieu, Lucy Colquhoun, Simon Lepper, Joseph Middleton, Dylan Perez, João Araujo, Ian Tindale, and Jonathan Ware. He has toured for Chamber Music New Zealand and given recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Pierre Boulezsaal Berlin, Verbier Festival, Enniskillen International Beckett Festival, Juan March Fondación Madrid, Victoria de los Angeles Lied Festival (LIFE Victoria) Barcelona, Oxford International Song Festival, Leeds Lieder, London Song Festival, Opera Holland Park, Fondation Royaumont, Piano Salon Christophori Berlin, Temple Song London, Royal Opera House, BBC Glenarm Festival of Voice.
A highly sought after recording artist, Van Mellaerts’ debut album Songs of Travel and Home (Champs Hill Records) was released in 2021 to critical acclaim. He also features on Samuel Barber: The Complete Songs (Resonus Classics), Russell Pascoe: A secular requiem (Regent CD), Gareth Farr’s Where Will They Bury My Bones? (Songbroker NZ), Songs of the Night (Champs Hill Records) and The Travelling Companion Stanford (SOMM records). His performance of Wozzeck Berg will be released by SOUNZ and Radio New Zealand Concert later this year.
Van Mellaerts studied music and languages at the University of Otago in New Zealand before moving to London to continue his studies at the Royal College of Music, where has also been a member of staff teaching English Song since 2021. He has been generously supported by the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation and is also an alumnus of the Verbier Festival Academy, Heidelberger Frühling Lied Academy, Samling Institute, Bayreuth Festspiele Stipendium and lauréat of Fondation Royaumont. He now lives in Paris, France.
Dylan Perez
Described as “sublime and completely intuitive” (The Sunday Times), pianist Dylan Perez is a recitalist, chamber musician and coach specialising in vocal repertoire. His recent and upcoming appearances include Wigmore Hall, Milton Court, Cadogan Hall, the Birmingham Conservatoire of Music, La Monnaie and the Copenhagen Opera Festival. Artists with whom he collaborates regularly include sopranos Mary Bevan and Soraya Mafi, mezzo-sopranos Jess Dandy, Ema Nikolovska and Kitty Whately and bass William Thomas. He enjoys a particularly fruitful performing relationship with his husband, renowned Scottish tenor Nicky Spence.
Dylan is the founder of re-sung, a London based song recital series that focuses on the connection between text and music, with special interest on creating new interpretations of masterworks and championing contemporary songs. In collaboration with Julien Van Mellaerts, he curates Opera in Song for Opera Holland Park – a song recital series that illuminates the operas, characters, and composers appearing during the summer season.
