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The American tenor, conductor, and educator Eric Christopher Perry, studied at Waterville Central School (Class of 2003). He obtained his Bachelor of Music degree (Vocal Performance, Music Performance, General) from the State University of New York at Fredonia (2004-2008). He also earned degrees in vocal performance from Arizona State University, and in conducting from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Lauded by the Boston Classical Review for his “expressive energy and ringing high notes,” praised for his “sweet and appealing tone” by the Boston Globe, and complimented for his "clear and even tone" by New York Arts, Eric Christopher Perry is gaining a national reputation for his passionate, imaginative chamber music performance and thought-provoking song interpretation. He made his professional singing debut at the Fredonia Bach & Beyond Festival under the baton of Grant Cooper in 2007. In 2010 he joined the Grammy-award winning Phoenix Chorale as a soloist in J.S. Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium (BWV 248) during the inaugural Arizona Bach Festival. Later that season he made his national symphony debut as The Milkman in Krása’s children’s opera Brundibár with the Phoenix Symphony. In June of 2011 he was awarded the Ivars Taurins Fellowship with the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute in Toronto, where he performed as a soloist in Charpentier’s Messe des Morts and as the role of Evangelist in a reading of J.S. Bach’s Johannes-Passion (BWV 245). Since, he has performed across the USA, as well as in Canada, Germany, Iceland, and throughout Australia.
Eric Perry relocated to Boston in 2012, and since has performed as a soloist with Cantata Singers, Musica Sacra, Orpheus Singers, Capella Clausura, New Hampshire Master Chorale, University of Massachusetts Bach Festival, and in a one-per-part performance of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 with Cambridge Concentus under the baton of Joshua Rifkin. He has also enjoyed performances as an ensemble member with the Handel and Haydn Society under Harry Christophers, Ian Watson, and Grant Llewellyn, Boston Baroque under Martin Pearlman, and Boston's new male vocal chamber ensemble, Renaissance Men, of which Perry is a founding member and current artistic director/conductor (since January 2014). 2015-2016 will also mark his fourth season with Emmanuel Music: Bach Cantata Series, with whom he has sung over twenty five cantatas as an ensemble member and has appeared as a soloist for several cantatas, as well as a soloist in Rossini's Petite messe sollenelle, under the the direction of Ryan Turner, John Harbison and Michael Beattie.
Nationally Eric Perry has appeared with Spire Chamber Orchestra, Oregon Bach Festival, and as a guest soloist and masterclass clinician at Colorado State University, Louisiana State University, the College of Idaho, College of Southern Idaho, Tennessee Wesleyan College, and Hamilton College, among others. Highlights from the 2014-2015 season include his debut with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale under the direction of Joshua Habermann in their winter festival and in their widely acclaimed performance at the 2015 American Choral Directors Association National Conference in Salt Lake City - recently featured by Minnesota Public Radio. In the same season he was a last minute replacement in a concert of Benjamin Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings with the South Arkansas Symphony Orchestra under Kermit Poling, which was later broadcasted on public radio stations across five states in the American south. Devoted to the art of song recital, recent programs include Philip Rosseter's 1601 Book of Ayres, Dvorák's Cypresses, Christopher Berg's Songs on Poems of Frank O'Hara and a recital of Australian art song at the Ballarat Art Gallery in Victoria, Australia in conjunction with the Australian Music Centre. An advocate for music by today's composers, he has premiered works as a soloist and ensemble member in New England and abroad, including: Scott Farkas's Moon in a Mason Jar - songs from a collection of poems by former Guggenheim-fellow Robert Wrigley set to music for percussion and voice, as part of the College of Southern Idaho's Stage Door Series, Charles Stacy III's A Rose Withered, a new hour-long cycle of songs for tenor and virtuoso piano based on A.E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad, and James Piorkowski's The Greatest of These for guitar and chamber ensemble [Nine: The Guitar and Beyond; Centaur Records, 2015].
Eric Perry has made guest conducting appearances with the Nashua Sings Choral Festival and the New Hampshire Music Educators Association All State Women's Choir. In 2013 he was the interim director of Plymouth State University's Chorale, in which he conducted Adriano Banchieri's madrigal cycle Il Festino nella sera del giovedì grasso. No stranger to the stage, he has conducted and provided original orchestrations to such shows as Godspell!, The Rocky Horror Show, Cabaret, The Music Man, Hello, Dolly!, Chicago, and Hairspray. In 2013 he was the musical director/rhythm guitarist for productions of Spring Awakening at Plymouth State University and Emerson College. He regularly enjoys collaborations in musical theatre and American Songbook literature with pianist and arranger Jayson Keeton, currently based in Goldsboro, North Carolina.
2015-2016 marked Eric Perry's fourth year on faculty at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts (since 2012). He also previously taught at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Plymouth State University, and a visiting lecturer of musical theatre voice at Federation University Australia in Ballarat, Victoria. He is also a proud member of American Choral Directors Association and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (since 2005), men's national music fraternity. Since 2015, he is on the Voice Faculty of New England Conservatory Preparatory School in Boston.
Eric Perry is thrilled for the 2015-2016 season which includes appearances with Vox Humana Texas in Dallas under David N. Childs, solo engagements with the Henry Purcell of Society of Boston at the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport, and also with the Andover Choral Society and Singers of Stow in a performance of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610. He will also return with the Oregon Bach Festival as a member of the 36-voice Berwick Chorus under Matthew Halls, Masaaki Suzuki, Craig Hella Johnson, and as the role of Servus in J.S. Bach's St. John Passion (BWV 245) under Helmuth Rilling (Kathy Saltzman Romey: chorus master). In December of 2015 he rejoined the Santa Fe Desert Chorale for their winter season. He will lead Renaissance Men through four exciting series of concerts and a brand new commercial recording in their second full season, and will also present a triptych of Schubert song cycles with faculty and student pianists at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts throughout the academic year. He currently lives in Boston, Massachuse. |
