Mezzo Soprano Elsbeth Gerritsen listened a lot to operas of Verdi and Mozart in her teenage years. Studying musicology at the university of Utrecht seemed the perfect pre-education: itbrought the contact with likeminded souls (it turned out that there were more people of her age listening to classical music on their headphones) and it introduced her to the historically informed performance. The many concerts she visited on the Early Music Festival brought her a great passion for Baroque Music in general and especially for the music of Bach.
After her doctoral exam she went to the conservatory of Amsterdam. As a vocal student there, she was very happy with her teacher Margreet Honig. Not only because of her very inspiring classes, but also because of the fact that when Elsbeth starting singing her own Passions, Margreet sent her to Jard van Nes for coaching of the Altaria’s. These lessons turned out to be very valuable as well!
Currently Elsbeth Gerritsen sings with the Nederlandse Bachvereniging as a singer, and she is the alt in Quinck, a vocal quartet that is internationally known. As a soloist, she sang with famous ensembles as Asko|Schonberg, Camerata Trajectina, Klangart Berlin, and VocaalLab. She sang among others, the Altrapsodie of Brahms, Alexander Nevsky of Prokofiev, and M is for Man, Music, Mozart of Andriessen.
Elsbeth also sang a lot of oratorium repertoire, of which the Stabat Mater of Haydn, the Petite Messe Solennelle of Rossini, L’Enfance du Christ of Berlioz and the Requiem of Verdi.
On the opera stage she has played among others Naïve Miranda in The Tempest of Purcell, Pragmatic Yola in a world premiere about immigrants (Two Caravans of Guy Harries), Ksenyia’s nurse in Boris Godoenov of Moessorgski, revengeful Klytaemnestra in Oresteia of Xenakis/Van Parys, alcoholic wife of Noach during the Flood in Brittens Noye’s Fludde, and beloved Peace in the oldest Dutch opera: the vaudeville De Triomfeerende Min of Carolus Hacquart from 1678.
Her future engagements consist of the altsolo in Die Donnerode of Telemann (with Vox Luminis in the Festival Saint Michel en Thierache), the role of La Rose in the opera Le Petit Prince of Michaël Levinas for Operadagen Rotterdam (De Doelen), and a role in the new musical theatre play #tristansolde – love fail of David Lang for Silbersee (Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ).
