Van Mellaerts, Julien
No. 54
Voice type: Baritone
Country: New Zealand
Date of birth: 29 April, 1988
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, New Zealand baritone Julien Van Mellaerts graduated with the Tagore Gold Medal from the Royal College of Music, London. He is supported by the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation and is also a scholar and alumnus of the Verbier Festival Academy, the Lied Academy of the Heidelberger Frühling with Thomas Hampson, the Bayreuth Festspiele Stipendium, a Samling Artist and a lauréat of La Fondation Royaumont. He represented New Zealand in 2019 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World. In January 2021, he was invited to return to the Royal College of Music as a member of staff to teach English Song.
Recent engagements include Duke of Nottingham Roberto Devereux with Chelsea Opera Group, Garibaldo Rodelinda at the Göttingen Festival, Silvio Pagliacci for the Israeli Opera, Count Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro at Opera Holland Park and with Ibiza Clásico, Masetto Don Giovanni and Papageno Die Zauberflöte at the Verbier Festival, Figaro Le nozze di Figaro at Salzburg Mozart Woche, performances of Brahms A German Requiem with Ensemble Aedes, Mahler Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Christmas Carols at the Royal Albert Hall with RPO. Upcoming engagements include returns to the Wigmore Hall, Israeli Opera, New Zealand Opera, Verbier Festival.
His debut song CD, Songs of Travel and Home with James Baillieu, was released in September 2021 by Champs Hill Records. For Opera Holland Park, with Dylan Perez he produces and co-curates Opera in Song, closing the traditional gap between opera and song recitals.
Competition Repertoire
Preliminary
Liszt: Die drei Ziegeuner
Korngold: Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen – Fritz’s aria from Die tote Stadt
Händel: Del minacciar del vento – Emireno’s aria from Ottone
Semi-final
Britten: Look, through the port comes the moonshine astray – Billy’s aria from Billy Budd
Thomas: Ô vin, dissipe la tristesse – Hamlet’s aria from Hamlet
Final
Mozart: Hai già vinta la causa! ... Vedró mentr'io sospiro – Count Almaviva’s aria from Le nozze di Figaro
Wagner: Wie Todesahnung... O du, mein holder Abendstern – Wolfram’s recitative and Song to the Evening Star from Tannhäuser
Verdi: C'est mon jour suprême... Carlos, écoute – from Don Carlos