Draft:Griet De Geyter

Griet De Geyter, born 1981 in Dendermonde, East Flanders, Belgium, is a classical soprano. She mainly specializes in Baroque music but also works on projects from Renaissance polyphony to new music.

Early life and education
De Geyter was born in 1981 in Dendermonde. Her brother Bert (b.1984) is a visual artist; her brother Rik (b.1986) is a clarinettist. At the age of seven she began music lessons at the music academy in Lebbeke, playing piano and recorder. As there was no singing class at the time, one was created especially for her.

De Geyter attended the Sint-Vincentiusinstituut (high school) in Dendermonde, studying economics and mathematics while attending a music school before ultimately deciding to pursue music full-time in university.

De Geyter gained her Master's degree from the Lemmensinstituut in Leuven in 2004, studying singing with Dina Grossberger and Lieve Vanhaverbeke and recorder with Bart Spanhove and Bart Coen. In her final year she elected to focus on voice over recorder due to the wider range of repertoire and ease of expression.

Starting in 2004 she studied at the Dutch National Opera Academy, a partnership between the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and the Royal Conservatory of the Hague). In January 2007 she gained her Master's degree in opera magna cum laude with the role of Suzanna in The Marriage of Figaro. She received the "ruim baan voor talent" (make room for talent) scholarship prize. She has also studied with Jard van Nes and Margreet Honig.

Career
De Geyter has recorded/performed with Belgian music group Bl!ndman's [vox] quartet, Pluto Ensemble, Zefiro Torna, Ensemble Polyharmonique, Vlaams Radiokoor, Club Medieval, Il Gardellino, BachPlus, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Concerto d'Amsterdam, Holland Symfonia (now known as Het Balletorkest), Champ d'Action, Ex tempore, Scherzi Musicali, Residentie Bachorkest, Collegium Vocale Gent and Gli Angeli Genève.

In 2008, she was one of the soloists for the European Union Youth Orchestra's summer tour with Vladimir Ashkenazy.

She was a founding member of Utopia Ensemble, a Belgian polyphony group that has released a number of albums including Cristóbal de Morales' Lamentations of Jeremiah and a CD centered around the music of Martin Luther. De Geyter stated that she left Utopia to focus more on her solo career.

De Geyter also performs a substantial amount of chamber music; with organist Bart Rodyns and pianist Nicholas Callot she performs regularly and also recorded a live concert for Warner entitled Clara's Heart as well as an EP of music by Franck, Massenet, and Barbara.

With Nicholas Callot and her brother Rik De Geyter she forms Historically Informed Performance trio M E L E A S, who have recorded, among other things, an arrangement of Mahler's Das himmlische Leben, as well as an album of Schubert.

Currently mainly a soloist, De Geyter has in recent years sung with the Opernhaus Kiel and with conductors including Jos van Veldhoven, Philippe Herreweghe, Václav Luks, Richard Egarr, Stephan MacLeod, Shunske Sato, Vincent Dumestre, Marcus Creed, Peter Van Heyghen, Florian Heyerick, Bart Naessens, Bart van Reyn, Otto Tausk, James Wood, Frank Agsteribbe, Nicolas Mansfield, Paul Dombrecht, Jos Vermunt and Paul Van Nevel.

De Geyter has been a member of the Netherlands Bach Society (as both a soloist and a ripienist) since 2011 and is featured in many of their tours, concerts, and All of Bach recordings. She has sung as a soloist in the Bach Society's annual St Matthew Passion tour in 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2018; a 2014 concert was recorded for All of Bach and has 4 million views on YouTube as of April 2024.

Compagnie Paprika is De Geyter's initiative to bring classical music to children, together with artist Yo Bisschops and pianist Katrien Vercauter. Cie Paprika has several programs with music and visual performance that children are likely to be interested in.

De Geyter's first solo album, Stille Klagen: Remorse and Redemption on German Baroque, with il Gardellino was released on Passacaille in 2020 and featured cantatas by Bach, Telemann, and Buxtehude.