To become a singer Donald Greig followed the somewhat trying and tested route of boy chorister (Westminster Abbey) followed by choral scholar (Canterbury Cathedral), the latter whilst studying at Kent University. After graduating with a couple of degrees in Film Studies and English, now armed with an arcane knowledge of post-structuralist literary theory, he moved to London in search of gainful, preferably paid employment. A series of fortuitous encounters led him to join the Tallis Scholars in 1985, an event which precipitated a rapid abandonment of academic, journalistic and dramatic activities and the adoption of a program of travelling, singing and searching for the world's finest beer. In the world of early music he has sung with Gothic Voices, Taverner Consort, Fretwork and the Gabrieli Consort (amongst many others) as well as being a founder member of the Orlando Consort. He has resisted attempts to typecast him as an early music specialist by singing in musicals and opera, and is an active and versatile session singer happy in a number of idioms. He has thus backed - in no particular order - Joni Mitchell, Elton John, Nicole Kidman and, er, Chris De Burgh. The academic side now finds an outlet in investigations into issues of performance practice and musicology and he has given several lectures and workshops at Harvard, Toronto, Baltimore and many others. He has also written several dense, heavily-footnoted articles, which have been a great aid to fellow colleagues suffering from jet-lag induced insomnia. He probably needs to get out more.
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