"Tenor Derek Chester - beautifully liquescent tone and vivid declamation"
"The Dallas Bach Society's Messiah on Monday night may have been the finest live performance I've ever heard of Handel's beloved oratorio."

Dallas Morning News - Dec 20, 2011

"The most amazing vocal performance of the evening, however, came from tenor Derek Chester. Along with a ravishingly beautiful voice, he continually revealed a perfect balance of logic and passion."

FrontRow - Dec 19, 2011

"Derek Chester's easeful and wondrously pliant tenor was deployed to maximum expressive effect."

Scott Cantrell - Dallas Morning News - Dec 23, 2010

"Across four centuries, some of the most dramatic, virtuosic - and frankly sensuous - music ever penned reverberated through the Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe on Sunday night. Marking the 400th anniversary of Claudio Monteverdi's Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, Dallas' Orpheus Chamber Singers performed the work in collaboration with string players from Houston's Ars Lyrica and a San Francisco-based baroque winds ensemble called The Whole Noyse. It was one of the most glorious musical experiences I've had in 11 years in Dallas.

One soloist after another sang beautifully, but the standouts were soprano Julie Liston Johnson and tenor Derek Chester."

Dallas News - Nov 15, 2010

"Even up front the reverberation was ample, and the solo singers - most notably Derek Chester, the tenor who sang "Nigra sum" and the closing section of the Magnificat - used it to help float beautifully shaped, carefully nuanced phrasing."

New York Times (3-8-10, Allan Kozinn)

"As in his madrigals, Monteverdi leans heavily on the light, fleet tenors here. Derek Chester fielded a warm, agile tone, Aaron Sheehan a cooler, airier sound. Both proved impressive. One stunning effect came in an angelic colloquy, with the pair poised on either side of the nave, flanking the audience. At the words "Tre sunt" (There are three), a third admirably stylish and clear tenor, Lawrence Jones, joined in from the concert platform to create a triangulation of three similar but distinctly characterful voices."

Opera News (3-6-10, David Shengold)

"One of the evening's high points was the motet "Duo Seraphim,'' a sort of dialogue between angels. Pearlman had tenors Derek Chester and Aaron Sheehan sing across from each other in the balcony, creating a spacious, antiphonal effect. At the end a third tenor, Lawrence Jones, joined in from the stage. The result was a masterpiece of both art and spatial coordination."

Boston Globe (2-22-10, David Weininger)

"During the Motet Audi coelum, Mr. Chester demonstrated the beauty and flexibility of his voice with virtuosic ornamentation."

Classical Sonoma - (1-29-10, Joanna Bramel Young)

"Egarr had a superb, agile group of vocal soloists to work with - soprano MireilleAsselin,countertenor Darryl Taylor, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Lane, tenor Derek Chester, bass John Polhamus - and he gave everyone the freedom in temerariouspo to indulge in elaborate ornamentation."

Los Angeles Times (6-29-09, Richard S. Ginell)

"Also largely undaunted by the score's demands was tenor Derek Chester, as Didymus' pal Septimius....""

San Diego News Network (6-28-09, Valerie Scher)

"Singing the role of Didymus' fellow guard officer Septimus, Derek Chester's tenor voice has volume and flexibility showing in his arias "From virtue springs each gen'rous deed," "Descend kind pity," and especially the delightfully vigorous melismatic runs of the furious "Dread the fruits of Christian folly" a beauty that compensates any slight deficit of punch."

www.sandiego.com - Arts (6-28-09, George Weinberg-Harter)

"Soprano Abigail Haynes Lennox and tenor Derek Chester both contributed strong, shapely singing, making their "Domine Deus" duet one of the concert's highlights."

San Francisco Chronicle (1-20-09, Joshua Kosman)

"Six featured soloists handled their parts with grace and style, especially tenor Derek Chester in the role of the evangelist who holds the story together with incredibly difficult continual lines of recitative. Chester, a young singer who shows magnificent vocal maturity, was inspiring. His voice is clear and in the upper range morphs into almost a countertenor quality."

Richmond Times-Dispatch (4-19-2009, Walt Amacker)

"Any performance of the "St. Matthew Passion" rises or falls on the strength of its Evangelist, whose vocalized narration consumes about a quarter of the work's time span. This series of performances is blessed with Derek Chester, a tenor, also at ease in alto range, who knows how to ornament and inflect baroque recitative and treats his text as a story of high drama and urgent importance."

The Letter V - The Virginia Classical Music Blog (4-20-2009, Clarke Bustard)

"Chester had a light, pleasant tenor, and it would be interesting to hear him in a song recital that would display his talents more fully."

The Buffalo News (4-27-09, Garaud MacTaggart)

"Particular standouts included Derek Chester as Simon Stimpson, convincingly balancing the contradictory elements of degradation and integrity...."

http://www.theaterjones.com (4-7-09, Wayne Lee Gay)

"Derek Chester performed...with a well-focused tenor and an evocative emotional edge."

South Florida Classical Review (5-15-09, David Fleshler)

"Chester has a strong, clear voice, and he put some real feeling into the poor-me lyrics of the song"

Palm Beach ArtsPaper (5-15-09, Greg Stepanich)

"Without doubt, Derek Chester has a great career ahead of him as the Evangelist in any baroque passion - he tells the story while sustaining a glorious sound (an essential in this repertoire)."

Early Music

"Derek Chester's Evangelist could hold its own next to Mark Padmore's.

Choir and Organ

"The Mozart-Händel tandem continued with a finely etched and compelling Torna la pace al core from Idomeneo via tenor Derek Chester who recently played Evangelist in St. John Passion under the renowned Helmuth Rilling, conductor of the Stuttgart Bach Collegium."

Coral Gables Gazette

"Derek Chester's noble tenor soared eloquently in the concluding aria from Idomeneo, effortlessly reaching the highest limits of the upper register."

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

"(...Derek Chester...filled smaller role[s] with assurance..."

Boston Globe

"Tenor Derek Chester tossed off roulades of coloratura in a firm, secure voice.

Miami Herald

"The madrigal-like writing for three tenors in the Duo Seraphim brought out the music's unearthly beauty and tenor Derek Chester's hale, refined tone in the Audi coelum was a highlight."

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

"In the solemn Yom Kippur prayer Kol Nidre by Hirsch Weintraub, the fine Mozartean lyric tenor Derek Chester...sang out nobly."

Miami Herald

"Though still in his mid-20s, the beauty and natural ease with which [Derek Chester] took the Evangelist's role under James Taylor's expert tutelage in the same St John Passion performances has landed him not only accolades from discerning audiences at Yale and in New York, but a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Germany with Christoph Pregardien....Amazingly, even a European ear would not have guessed that Derek hails from Nicholson, Georgia."

Choir and Organ Magazine

"Matching the orchestra in sonic diversity were eight vocal soloists, ranging widely in timbre and stage presence but united by excellent interpretation. The exuberance of these appealing, youthful singers accorded well with the music, whose generally light and bouncy nature aptly reflects the holiday season.... The impressive Chester masterfully performed two virtuosic arias, "Frohe Hirten, eilt, ach eilet" (Joyful shepherds, haste, ah hasten) and "Ich will nur dir ze Ehren leben" (I would but for thine honor live now), with effortless agility."

San Francisco Classical Voice

"Tenor Derek Chester should have brought down the house with his terrific breath control & exactness in the thrilling coloratura aria "Frohe Hirten, eilt"."

Not for Fun Only (Arts Blog: Fun and Enlightenment in San Francisco)

"...tenor Derek Chester brought fine character reading to Comfort ye against the soothing strings."

Coral Gables Gazette

"...der Tenor Derek Chester, der im letzten Moment für den erkrankten Mark Heines einsprang, sang das Werk an diesem Abend mit Bravour zum ersten Mal in seiner noch jungen Karriere.
<...the tenor Derek Chester, substituting at the last moment for the ill Mark Heines, sang the work on this evening with bravour for the first time in his very young career.>"

Pfarrbrief

"Strong performances were presented by...Derek Chester as Don Curzio..."

Athens Banner Herald