Bio – English

Pieter De Praetere is a Belgian countertenor. As a soloist, he is mainly active in baroque music projects. In addition, he is much in demand for musical theater projects.

Pieter was born in a musical family. After discovering his falsetto voice as a choir boy at the age of 10, he started singing classes with Pascal Devreese in the Academy of Music in Ronse (BE). At the age of 16, he turned to countertenor Steve Dugardin in Antwerp for further vocal development. Later, when Pieter was studying Comparative Literature at the University of Ghent, he took classes with soprano Hilde Coppé. At the age of 28, Pieter entered the Royal Conservatory Brussels for singing, with Lena Lootens as his vocal and career coach.

As a young professional soloist, Pieter has already built up a nice repertoire. He performed soloist parts in Händel’s Messiah, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Vivaldi’s Gloria and a considerable share of J.S. Bach’s cantatas, motets and oratorios, among which Matthew Passion and Johannes Passion. Pieter was fortunate to work with artists like Bart Naessens, Beniamino Paganini, Nele Vertommen, Korneel Bernolet, among others and orchestras like Musica Gloria, B’Rock, Il Gardellino, Apotheosis, Il Fondamento…

If not in the baroque music scene, you will find Pieter very often in a theater hall. He has singing and acting parts in productions of Compagnie Lodewijk/Louis, Tg Vagevuur, Walpurgis, Malpertuis among others. In 2017, Pieter joined theatre company Aardvork. Their first creation together was Franzerl, a theater monologue about the music and life of Franz Schubert. In this piece Pieter had the title role, in which he acts and sings the character to life. A big success: the production has been touring around Belgium theatres for three years now with over 100 performances. In 2019, Pieter and Aardvork premiered their second play Henrycovering life and work of British composer Henry Purcell. In the first year after Covid, they produced a driving opera about Russian classical & folk music: De Rus & Comen. It has been touring since the summer of 2021 in theatres and festivals and will continue it’s run in 2022 throughout Belgium.

Contact information:
Info@pieterdepraetere.com
+32 (0) 497218479