Teaching

In addition to his life on the stage, Dr. Derek Anthony has taught around 1000 individuals from over 40 countries around the world. Some of the former students are either performing in Germany, studying in USA and Europe at some of the world’s most renowned music schools, or teaching in top universities in Asia.

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Media

Dr. Anthony has appeared in numerous radio and television programs both as a soloist/performer and as an expert on vocal performance issues on radio in USA and Hong Kong), and on television [CNBC (on “Money!  Money!  Money!”), JADE (on “HK Cultural Plaza”), RTHK, China National TV, and Canadian Television (with Sir Peter Ustinov)].

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Career

After arriving in Hong Kong in 1992, Dr. Anthony soon became well known in Hong Kong as the leading bass in most of the opera productions and concerts in Hong Kong, and quickly emerged as one of Asia’s leading operatic basses and vocal coaches.

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During his career Dr. Derek Anthony has performed with a number of performers from film, television, and the world’s major opera houses,, including Giacomo Aragall, Maria Ewing, Helga Dernesch, Gino Quilico, Enzo Dara, and Dame Josephine Barstow, Jaako Ryhaenen, Alison Pearce, Victor Borge, Doc Severinsen, and John Raitt.


Earlier in his career he won the first prize in five vocal competitions, including The Regional Metropolitan Opera Regional Auditions, The Carmel Grand Prize, and Finalist in Concurso Internacional de Canto in Rio de Janeiro in 1989.


In the 1980s he performed Soloist at Theater Oberhausen in Germany, served as Director and Professor of Vocal Studies at Wayne State University in Detroit, as Teaching Associate of the Peabody Conservatory, and as stage director for the Michigan Opera Theatre and the University of California in Santa Barbara.

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Reviews

Since the beginning of his vocal career, Derek Anthony has consistently received praise from both critics and audiences in Europe, America, and Asia for his artistic depth, versatility of dramatic expression, vocal technique and for excellent handling of performances in six different languages.

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Critics have described Dr. Derek Anthony’s vocal quality as a beautiful, rich, resonant, bass voice of exceptional brilliance, range and power. They have repeatedly praised his powerful stage presence, and for being a singer of exceptional vocal abilities who performs with both vigor and passion, yet with a quality of delivery that shows great taste and intelligence, in easy, elegant performances with excellent articulation and memorable colorations of the voice.  [See REVIEWS]



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Versatility

Throughout his career, Dr. Derek Anthony has received much praise for the diversity of his artistic expression.

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He has performed over 60 opera roles on stage in Europe, America, and Asia, including the leading bass roles in Don Giovanni (Leporello & Commendatore), The Marriage of Figaro (Bartolo), The Abduction from the Seraglio (Osmin), The Magic Flute (Sarastro), Don Pasquale (Title role), Lucia di Lammermoor (Raimondo), Norma (Oroveso), Cinderella (Don Magnifico), The Barber of Seville (Bartolo), Carmen (Zuniga), La Boheme (Colline Colline and Benoit), Gianni Schicchi (Title role), Turandot (Timur & Mandarino), Rigoletto (Sparafucile), Aida (Il Re), La Traviata (Dr. Grenvil), The Masked Ball (Count Ribbing), Salome (First Soldier), Julius Caesar (Tolomeo), Ormindo (Ariadeno), and La Serva Padrona (Uberto), L’heure espagnol (Don Inigo Gomez), Bastien und Bastienne (Colas), Salieri (Mozart and Salieri), Die Fledermaus (Frank & Frosch) as well  as in operettas such as Der Bettelstudent (Ollendorf) and The Merry Widow (Baron Zeta). He has also performed the role of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof to thunderous acclaim of Hong Kong audiences.

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Students

When Dr. Derek Anthony became Senior Lecturer at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts he taught there for 7 years and trained the majority of the school’s vocal students. 

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During his tenure at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, his students were selected to perform around 80% of all major roles in the Academy’s opera productions, and he was able to achieve the most significant and numerous successes with local students in the Academy’s history, helping many to enter advanced training programs at world famous music schools, winning international vocal competitions in Rome, Luxembourg, Kuala Lumpur, and Hong Kong, and frequently obtaining prestigious scholarships.

Several of his students have gone on to successful careers and advanced training in USA and Europe (Juillard School of Music, New England Conservatory, University of Indiana (Bloomington), Hochschule fuer Musik in Vienna and Graz, The Royal Academy and the Royal College of Music in London, and Royal Northern in Manchester, Shanghai Conservatory, and Sydney Opera House). One of them even was given the opportunity to sing for Pope Benedict XVI in Italy, and to co-star with Jose Carreras in Beijing. When in Year 2000 the Academy for the first time in its 20 year history sent an opera production on an overseas tour, visiting Austria, Thailand and Vietnam, the entire cast of soloists for a fully staged opera production, were trained by him.

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Background & Education

Dr. Anthony teaches in 4 languages, performs in 6 languages, and has lived in 7 countries. He was born in South Africa, and grew up in Zambia and Norway. 

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After his time in the Cavalry Officer’s training program (Tank command) in The Royal Norwegian Army, he completed his degree in Educational Science from the University of Oslo, Norway, including studies in philosophy, logic, statistical research methods, and specialized in motivational psychology.

His unique vocal talent was discovered by one of Norway’s leading conductors, Sverre Valen. He therefore pursued private studies in singing with the tenor Egil Frostmann at the same time.

When he was admitted to one of the world’s leading opera schools, he changed the direction of his career. During those years, he was given the opportunity to study under the internationally renowned Austrian bass Otto Edelmann, and was given leading roles in the school’s productions.

Within record time he graduated in 1983 with distinction in opera performance from the world famous Hochschule fuer Musik, now part of The University of Vienna. By that time, he had also obtained a full-time contract as an opera singer in Germany.

After a few years as a soloist in theatres in Germany, he decided to pursue further studies under yet another internationally renowned teacher and singer, the French baritone Martial Singher. That not only led to his participation in the famous Music Academy of the West in California, but also to a Master’s Degree from The University of California at Santa Barbara, and a Doctorate Degree from The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, both in Vocal Performance and on full scholarships. Meanwhile he also achieved successful results in 10 vocal competitions, winning the first prize in 5 of them, while continuing to perform in many operas, concerts, recitals, and radio broadcasts, and holding the Directorship of the Voice & Opera Program at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan from 1988-1990.


These opportunities also brought him into contact both with internationally renowned musicologists from the Universities of Harvard and Columbia, such as Karl Geiringer, Alejandro Planchart, Piero Weiss, and also with the Metropolitan opera singers Sherill Milnes, Martina Arroyo, Gilda Cruz-Romo, and Italjo Tajo, and other important figures in the world of opera, including Charles Riecker, Lorenzo Malfatti, Todd Duncan, William Ray some as teachers and mentors.

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Business

As someone with his international experience as a professional performer, with deep commitment to education, and with administrative experience, Dr. Anthony had the idea of founding The Music & Drama Institute (MDI Ltd.) in Hong Kong in year 2000.

However, before venturing into the world of business,

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Dr. Anthony first joined the Executive MBA Studies at The Richard Ivey School of Business at The Cheng Yu Tung Institute in Hong Kong in 1999. Today, besides serving as a member on the Advisory Board of The Richard Ivey School of Business, he runs The Music & Drama Institute Ltd. Originally conceived as a part-time academy of music, it has become an organization specializing in vocal and performance issues both for the corporate world and individual clients.


In addition, he serves as the Chairman of The Norwegian Chamber of Commerce where he has initiated a Distinguished Speaker’s Series, successfully recruiting prominent business leaders, academics, and celebrities to speak to the international business community in Hong Kong, while also attending around 100 professional and diplomatic functions every year.


Besides also being the Vice-president of The Johns Hopkins Club of Hong Kong, he has served as an external assessor for The HK Arts Development Council, and as music critic for The South China Morning Post.


He holds additional memberships in The National Association of Teachers of Singing and The College Music Society and The Asia Society, The Austrian Chamber of Commerce and the Italian Cultural Society.


Dr. Anthony has been included in Baron’s International Who is Who since 1998, and The International Who is Who of Professionals since 1999.

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