KERRY BURSEY, voice and lute (biography)

Kerry Bursey is a Canadian tenor and plucked string instrumentalist from Montréal. An early music specialist and a versatile singer, he is acclaimed for his “clear voice, made of dreamy troubadouresque sweetness” (Ôlyrix) and “beneficent tenderness” (Le Temps). He is a sought-after lutenist and guitarist, notably invested in the practice of self-accompaniment, from the lute song repertoire to folk music of northwestern traditions. In 2023, he makes his European debut as a soloist at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Manchester International Festival and the Bregenzer Festspieler.

He regularly works as a soloist with early music groups such as l’Harmonie des saisons, Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, les Idées Heureuses, la Nef as well as his own group Ménestrel, co-founded with soprano Janelle Lucyk. He has featured on a dozen albums with labels including ATMA Classique and Deutsche Grammophon. In 2021, he was appointed as the new tenor of Quartom. Kerry is frequently hired as a session musician and creative collaborator because of his broad musical output, from pop to video game music.

Kerry holds a masters’ degree in classical guitar from the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal and has studied voice performance at McGill University. He was a winner at the 2011 Grand Prix de Guitare de Montréal.