Pieter de Praetere countertenor
Pieter De Praetere is a Belgian countertenor, focusing mainly on Baroque music, and he is also a much sought-after figure in musical theatre. Pieter took up voice training with Pascal Devreese in Ronse, then at the age of sixteen he shifted to countertenor with Steve Dugardin in Antwerp. During his schooling in Literary Studies at Ghent University, he took lessons from Hilde Coppé. Shortly afterwards, he moved to the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Brussels to study with Lena Lootens.
As a soloist, Pieter has performed e.g. in Handel’s Messiah, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, and a significant portion of cantatas, motets and oratorios by Johann Sebastian Bach. Purcell, Vivaldi and their contemporaries are also often on his programme. Among others, Pieter sings with the ensembles Musica Gloria, Il Gardellino, B’Rock, BachPlus, Apotheosis, Il Fondamento, etc.
He has been working extensively with Beniamino Paganini and Nele Vertommen of the Musica Gloria ensemble. Together they have already completed several successful European tours. In 2020 they recorded music by Vivaldi and Purcell that was well received by the public and in the media.
Pieter is also active in the world of opera. He made his debut at the Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival in 2021 with B’Rock, and with Bart Naessens in Handel’s Judas Maccabeus. In the Reaktorhalle in Munich, he played the antagonist Pierre in Leon Zmelty’s contemporary opera Invitation to a Beheading, based on the novel by Vladimir Nabokov. With the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, he played the role of Farnace in Mozart’s Mitridate, re di Ponto at the Festival Midsummer Mozartiade. In 2026, Pieter will make his debut with Opera Ballet Vlaanderen in the opera Meryem by director Haider Al Timimi.
Pieter is a much sought-after figure in the Flemish theatre landscape. His role in the opera Wij, de verdronkenen at Wintervuur Antwerp, the Oerol Festival (Netherlands), in Marstal (Denmark) and in Theater aan Zee Ostend did not go unnoticed. With Muziektheater Broder he has been touring Belgium for years with poetic family-oriented performances with and about classical music (Franzerl, Babushka, Seaking…).
