Interim Music Director

Eric Christopher Perry has earned a reputation as one of the nation's most dynamic vocal artists, conductors, educators, and arts entrepreneurs; lauded by The Boston Globe for his “sharp physicality and ringing tenor voice,” and highly regarded for his “indefatigable energy,” "brilliant program curation," and “expert interpretation” on the podium as well as the concert stage. His performances in myriad facets of the vocal arts have been seen across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, and his critically-acclaimed recordings as a conductor have been heard in over 150 countries worldwide.

He is the artistic director, conductor, and a founding member of Renaissance Men, New England’s professional male vocal chamber ensemble, whose work spans a decade's worth of sold-out performances across the Eastern United States and multiple critically-acclaimed albums released on Navona Records and its recently launched in-house label, RenMen Records. Their most current full-length album, "RenMentality," produced by Grammy-award winning Tyler Graham Chester (Madison Cunningham, Sara Watkins), was released in November 2024 and has already earned bronze-level streaming numbers internationally. A champion of new music for low voices, he has led RenMen through world premieres and commissions by globally-renowned composers as Daniel E. Gawthrop, Sydney Guillaume, Hilary Tann, Patricia Van Ness, Jay Mobley, Charles Stacy III, Andrew Clarkson, and Stuart Forster. In the 2022-23 season, he conducted Igor Stravinsky's rarely-performed burlesque opera "Renard" at Boston University in collaboration with RenMen, KAIROS Dance Theater and Sound Icon Sinfonietta; hailed by critics as "the coolest thing I have seen all year." RenMen is committed to community engagement as well, enjoying partnerships with Boston City Singers and Boston Children's Chorus, as well as collaborations with academic institutions and avocational choral ensembles across New England. Recent major media engagements includes a live performance on GBH Boston's "Boston Public Radio with Jim Braude and Margery Eagan" and WCRB's "A Holiday Celebration" live stream in 2022, which featured a collaboration with Metropolitan Opera tenor Lawrence Brownlee, viewed by hundreds of thousands in the digital space.
 
ecp is also an experienced conductor of choral/orchestral repertoire for mixed voices of all eras. Notable recent performances include Arvo Pärt's "Berliner Messe," Francine Trester's "Walkers with the Dawn," Joseph Haydn's "Schöpfungsmesse," Abby Betinis's "Free, Fearless, and Female," Reinhard Keiser's "Markus-Passion," and the North American premiere of Chistoph Graupner's cantata "Ach, wo nun hin," in a new edition published by long-time collaborator Dr. Marius Bahnean. 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 native of Waterville in rural Central New York State, 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, as well as Boston's most illustrious sacred music instiuttions. 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., 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, and tenor soloist in the groundbreaking "Crossing The Deep" concerts, both in its premiere in 2023 and its revival in 2025. 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. With Emmanuel Music he has also appeared as a soloist in Rossini’s "Petite messe solennelle," Britten’s "The Beggar’s Opera," James Primosch's "Mass for the Day of St. Thomas Didymus," and the world premiere of Evan Williams's "A Little Mass for Christmas."

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/chorus 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. No stranger to musical theatre of all eras, he has enjoyed in-concert performances of works by Stephen Sondheim, Jason Robert Brown, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and others; most recently as a featured soloist with Huntington Symphony Orchestra (West Virginia), and the Charleston Civic Chorus (West Virginia) with long-time collaborator Jayson Keeton.

A devoted music educator, ecp is currently on voice faculty at Salem State University, where he teaches private studio instruction for majors, non-majors, and continuing education, group voice class for non-majors, and songwriting. From 2017-2022 he served as Director of Choral and Vocal Activities at Colby College. He also 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 holds degrees in vocal performance and conducting at Fredonia State University, Arizona State University, and University of Massachusetts Amherst, and is a proud member of Chorus America, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and Greater Boston Choral Consortium.