Kerry Bursey
Kerry Bursey is a tenor and plucked string instrumentalist from Montréal, active on the early music scene across Canada. His voice is appreciated for its precise and luminous quality and he is a sought-after lutenist and guitarist, who’s invested in the rare practice of self-accompaniment, in early and folk music of northwestern traditions.
Kerry works with Canadian early music groups such as l’Harmonie des Saisons, Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal, Ensemble Caprice, Theatre of Early Music, Arion Baroque Orchestra, les Idées Heureuses, Alkemia and Clavecin en Concert. He has participated in Tafelmusik's Baroque Summer Institute and he specialized on the music of J.S. Bach in Germany and Italy through the Stuttgart Bachakademie and the Weimar Bachkantatenakademie. He is a seasoned ensemble vocalist singing with groups such as the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain, les Rugissants, I Musici, Ensemble Vocal Arts-Québec and the Church of St. Andrew & St. Paul Choir. He has featured on almost a dozen albums with labels including ATMA Classique and Deutsche Grammophone. In 2021, he was appointed as the new tenor of Quartom, the leading classical male vocal quartet in Québec.
On the popular scene, Kerry is hired as a session musician and creative collaborator because of his broad musical output. In 2020, he composed and performed the entire soundtrack of an award-winning film, 444, a psychological thriller which premiered at the 2021 Fantasia Film Festival in Montréal. He also sang Gregorian chants as a monk in the latest installment of the famous video game Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla.
Kerry holds a bachelor in classical guitar from the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal and studied early music singing at McGill University. He served as a violist in the Orchestre symphonique des jeunes de Montréal, also performing as a guitar soloist in the famous Concierto de Aranjuez and went on tour in China. He was a prize-winning finalist at the 2011 Grand Prix de guitare de Montréal and the Concours de musique de Sorel.