Peter Van Derick

Biography

Peter Van Derick has enjoyed a 45-year international opera career, as well as many years as a voice teacher and musical director. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1995 in John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles, and performed there in Die Zauberflöte, Salome, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Capriccio, and Andrea Chenier. He performed the title role in Gianni Schicchi with the Metropolitan Opera Guild, and sung with the American Symphony Orchestra in rare masterpieces such as Smyth’s The Wreckers and Schrecker’s Der Ferne Klang. Other performances include productions of Macbeth, La Boheme, Tristan und Isolde, Cosi Fan Tutte and Where The Wild Things Are with the Los Angeles Music Center Opera; Matthus’ Judith and Rihm’s Oedipus with the Santa Fe Opera; Bolcom’s McTeague with the Lyric Opera of Chicago; Peter Grimes with Opera de Marseilles; and Dialogues of the Carmelites under the baton of Richard Bonynge with the San Diego Opera. He also sang in the world premieres of Thea Musgrave’s Harriet, The Women Called Moses (Virginia Opera) and Lee Hoiby’s The Tempest (Des Moines Metro Opera). More recently he has appeared as the narrator in Silent Voices and performed his first spoken Shakespearean role, Leonato in Much Ado About Nothing.