Etherea Vocal Ensemble

Derek Greten-Harrison has performed professionally as a countertenor for the past 25 years, including the role of Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and as a featured soloist in Handel’s Messiah and As Pants the Hart, Bach’s Magnificat and various cantatas, Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass, and Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit de Noël, among other works. He founded and was artistic director of the critically acclaimed Etherea Vocal Ensemble, whose two albums for Delos Records both charted on Billboard’s Traditional Classical Albums list.

Derek also appears frequently as a baritone, and has performed the roles of Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen, Betto and Spinelloccio in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, the Gendarme in Poulenc’s Les mamelles de Tirésias, and Shakespeare’s villain Antonio in the New York premiere production of Hoiby’s The Tempest (subsequently recorded for Albany Records). His first love, however, has always been the Great American Songbook, and it is this repertoire that he most enjoys performing, drawing upon his extensive background in classical voice to recreate the period vocal stylings of the Golden Age of Hollywood and Broadway.

Also a musicologist, Derek spends much of his time meticulously restoring classic film music for orchestras to play today, including the complete scores to State Fair (1945), Meet Me in St. Louis, Oklahoma!, and Gone with the Wind, as well as individual songs from the 20th Century-Fox, M-G-M, and Warner Bros. catalogs. His work has been performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Pasdeloup, Philly POPS, and PKF-Prague Philharmonia, and recorded by the BBC Concert Orchestra.