Lauded by The Boston Globe for "his sharp physicality and ringing tenor voice," Eric Christopher Perry has built an international reputation for his imaginative, expressive, and passionate performances as a vocal artist, conductor, and educator. He has performed across the United States, Canada, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Spain, and Australia, and his critically-acclaimed recordings as a conductor have been heard in over one hundred countries worldwide.
ecp relocated to Boston in 2012 and has performed as an ensemble member and soloist with championed choral and instrumental chamber ensembles and orchestras regionally and nationally. He is frequently seen with the Handel and Haydn Society as a member of the internationally renown Handel and Haydn Society chorus; performance highlights include tour appearances in California, Washington D.C., and in a special performance of Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Damon in Handel's Acis and Galatea presented by the Connecticut Early Music Festival, tenor soloist in BWV 10 in 2016's "Bach Christmas" concerts, and concerts of music featuring Black composers in partnership with Museum of African American History – Boston. He is also a proud member of Emmanuel Music, with whom he has sung over 100 cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach as an ensemble member or soloist in their weekly cantata series, and has enjoyed performances of Bach’s Mattäus-Passion, a reconstructed version of Markus-Passion, Weihnachts-Oratorium, and Mass in B Minor in special evening concerts. Outside of Bach, he has appeared as a soloist in Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle, Harry Paddington in Britten’s The Beggar’s Opera, and conducted Renaissance Men in a special performance of "RenMen On This Island" as part of the 2019 Late Night at Emmanuel series.
Other noted solo appearances: South Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Phoenicia Festival of the Voice, MIT Symphony Orchestra, Harvard University, Festina + Tallahassee Bach Parley, Henry Purcell Society of Boston, The Boston Camerata, Cantata Singers, Blue Hill Bach Festival, Cappella Clausura, Labyrinth Choir, Viva Bach Peterborough, Tennessee Wesleyan University, Music at First Presbyterian Charleston, West Virginia. Ensemble credits: Boston Baroque, Oregon Bach Festival, Spire Chamber Orchestra, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Zenith Ensemble, AMPERSAND-New York City, The Choir of St. Luke in the Fields, Upper Valley Baroque, Heidi Breyer's Amor Aternus at Carnegie Hall. ecp also was an ensemble member/choral manager for New England performances of Hans Zimmer Live in 2017.
Devoted to the art of song recital, recent programs include Schubert’s Winterreise and Die schöne Müllerin, Philip Rosseter’s 1601 Book of Ayres, 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. In 2020 ecp recorded a film version of Britten's Winter Words and Gabriel Kahane's Book of Travelers with pianist Christina Spurling for Colby College Center for the Arts and Humanities.
ecp is the artistic director and conductor of Renaissance Men, New England’s professional male vocal chamber ensemble, heralded by Cinemusical as "the East Coast answer to Chanticleer." Since its founding in 2014, RenMen has performed in concert tours from Maine to Louisiana, released two albums on Navona Records as well as digital releases on its own label, RenMen Records, enjoyed educational partnerships with the Boston City Singers and Boston Children's Chorus, and curated over ten unique concert programs featuring commissioned works by new composers. In 2022 RenMen was a featured artist on GBH's "Holiday Celebration" which included a collaborative performance with internationally-acclaimed tenor Lawrence Brownlee. RenMen's newest album, RenMentality – centered at the intersection of music and mental health, produced by Grammy-nominated Tyler Graham Chester (Andrew Bird, Sara Watkins, Madison Cunningham) and engineered by Grammy-winning Alex Venguer (Aretha Franklin, Wynton Marsalis, John Legend) will be released in Spring 2023.
As a guest conductor and presenter he has appeared at state conferences in New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York, is an active adjudicator, most recently for the American Choral Directors Association Maine, Great East Music Festivals, and Tennessee Music Educators Association, and has given clinics at colleges and high schools across the country on the vocal arts, arts entrepreneurship, and music's important role in mental health wellness and advocacy.
A devoted music educator, ecp joined the voice faculty of Salem State University in January 2023. From 2017-2022, he served as the Director of Choral and Vocal Activities at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, where he led performances of major works by J.S. Bach, Handel, Haydn, Schubert, Pärt, Duruflè, Barnett, Trester, Copland, as well as the North American premiere of Christoph Graupner's "Ach wo nun hin" with Choirs at Colby, Colby-Kennebec Chorale, the Colby Symphony Orchestra, and Colby Collegium Chamber Orchestra, published by Dr. Marius Bahnean. He previously taught at Phillips Academy Andover, New England Conservatory Preparatory Division, Plymouth State University, and Federation University Australia in Ballarat, Victoria. He is also the host of a music education podcast, "CHORantine," distributed worldwide, with new production in 2023. ecp is a proud member of Chorus America and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.