Anthony Dean Griffey

Photo © Harry Heleotis

Biography

A native of North Carolina, tenor Anthony Dean Griffey has captured critical and popular acclaim with opera companies and symphony orchestras worldwide. The combination of his beautifully lyric, yet powerful, tenor voice, a gift for exceptional communication and excellent musicianship has earned him the highest approbations.

The 2004-05 season finds Mr. Griffey traversing the Atlantic many times, while visiting a host of the premier opera houses and concert halls, beginning with recitals in Greensboro, NC, as well as in New York at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, where he will give the world premiere of a set of four songs composed for him by Sir André Previn. The Britten War Requiem is next at Carnegie Hall with Robert Bass leading the Collegiate Chorale, followed by his Dutch debut with the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest Holland and AVRO for Rachmaninov’s The Bells and Debussy’s La chute de la maison Usher (conducted by Edo de Waart) in Utrecht, Rotterdam and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. In England he performs Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the London Festival Orchestra. His new year begins in front of the microphones, as Mr. Griffey records Janá?ek’s rarely-heard The Eternal Gospel for Hyperion. Appearances follow with the Baltimore Symphony in Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2 “Lobgesang,” the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder led by Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society for a recital with pianist Ken Noda, the Atlanta Symphony (Das Lied von der Erde/Robert Spano) and the London Philharmonic (War Requiem/Kurt Masur). With the San Francisco Symphony he performs the Beethoven Symphony No. 9, marking Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas’ 10th year with the orchestra. Mr. Griffey’s season comes to a close with his Santa Fe Opera debut in the title role of Britten’s Peter Grimes.

In the 2003-2004 season, Mr. Griffey appeared with the Metropolitan Opera (the Sailor in Tristan und Isolde), the New York City Opera (Lennie in Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men), the Opéra National de Paris (his company debut - title role in Peter Grimes) and the Washington National Opera, where he reprised a role he created - Mitch in Maestro Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire. Additionally, he sang the Beethoven Ninth Symphony and the Bruckner Te Deum with the London Symphony Orchestra led by Maestro Tilson Thomas; the Mozart Requiem with the Charlotte Symphony; the Britten Serenade for Tenor and French Horn with the Phoenix and Sun Valley Symphonies; Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Syracuse Symphony; Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (rarely essayed by a tenor) at Québec’s Lanaudière Festival; and the Britten War Requiem at Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival. He was also heard in recital at two of his alma maters, the Eastman School of Music (Rochester, NY) and North Carolina’s Wingate University, as well as with the Pittsburgh Symphony Classics and at the Lanaudière and Ravinia Festivals.

Operatically, Anthony Dean Griffey has been most closely identified with three roles: Lennie in Of Mice and Men , (which he has already performed with the Houston Grand Opera, New York City, Glimmerglass, San Diego & Florentine Operas and at Austria’s Bregenz Festival); the title role in Peter Grimes (Metropolitan Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Glyndebourne Festival, and under Seiji Ozawa at the Tanglewood and Saito Kinen Festivals, in addition to the upcoming Santa Fe engagement); and Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire , which he created at the work’s 1998 San Francisco Opera world premiere (recorded on CD, video and DVD and aired on national television by PBS), and subsequently performed with the Washington National & San Diego Operas and London & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras. Other key operatic roles include: Sam in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah (Metropolitan & Lyric Opera of Chicago); Le Fils in Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias (Saito Kinen Festival/Ozawa); and the title roles in Kurka’s Good Soldier Schweik (Glimmerglass Opera), Mozart’s Idomeneo (Mostly Mozart Festival), Deems Taylor’s Peter Ibbetson (Seattle Symphony) and Weber’s Oberon (Collegiate Chorale/Carnegie Hall).

Mr. Griffey is a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera Young Artist Development Program, and initially appeared with the company in April 1995 as the First Knight in Parsifal. He has since been seen in numerous productions including Manon, Don Carlo, Boris Godunov, The Queen of Spades, Aida, Billy Budd, Salome, Der fliegende Holländer and Die Zauberflöte , as well as the previously cited Peter Grimes (1998), Susannah opposite Renée Fleming (1999) and Tristan und Isolde (1999 [Televised on PBS] & 2003, both times conducted by James Levine).

In the symphonic/choral arena Mr. Griffey has made notable appearances with great maestros and orchestras around the world: Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy at Tanglewood for Seiji Ozawa’s farewell concerts with the Boston Symphony; Mass in C Major (San Francisco/Tilson Thomas); Missa Solemnis (Houston/Graf & Atlanta); Ninth Symphony (London Symphony/Tilson Thomas, Philadelphia/Dutoit, Los Angeles/Salonen, Minnesota/Oue, St. Louis/Vonk, Houston/Graf, Baltimore, for the televised opening of the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics/Ozawa and the upcoming San Francisco performances); the Britten Serenade for Tenor (New York/Previn & Pittsburgh) Spring Symphony (BSO at Symphony Hall & Tanglewood/both with Previn, and the NHK Symphony); War Requiem (BSO/Tanglewood/Ozawa & Atlanta/Runnicles, as well as the upcoming London Philharmonic/Masur and Collegiate Chorale/Bass performances); Bruckner Te Deum (LSO/Tilson Thomas); Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius (New York/C. Davis; Hallé/Elder, Cathedral Choral Society of Washington, DC); Handel’s Messiah (Philadelphia, San Francisco, Baltimore & Minnesota); Haydn’s The Creation (Baltimore); Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (Detroit/;Järvi, Atlanta & Brooklyn/both with Spano, St. Paul/Delfs, Paris-BBC Proms/Eschenbach); Eighth Symphony (San Francisco/Tilson Thomas, Lanaudière); Mozart's Mass in C-minor (Münchner Philharmoniker/Levine, Mostly Mozart Festival/Schwarz); the world premiere of Previn’s “Streetcar” Suite (BSO-Tanglewood); and Schoenberg's Gurrelieder (Pittsburgh/Jansons, as well as the upcoming L.A. performances).

Mr. Griffey has been heard on many of the country’s leading recital series. Of particular interest are his appearances with David Daniels in Britten’s rarely-heard cantata Abraham and Isaac (Carnegie Hall) and at the Ravinia Festival with Christoph Eschenbach accompanying. His most frequent recital collaborator is fellow-North Carolinian, pianist Warren Jones.

In addition to his participation in the upcoming Janá?ek disk for Hyperion and Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire for Deutsche Grammophon, he can be heard in Les Mamelles de Tirésias , conducted by Seiji Ozawa on the Philips label; I Lombardi , led by James Levine for Decca Records; and Amy Beach's Cabildo for Delos. Of Mice and Men , a live recording from the Houston Grand Opera, was released in January 2004 on the Albany label. The DVD of the 1999 Metropolitan Opera Tristan und Isolde is available on DG/Universal.

Anthony Dean Griffey has been the recipient of many awards and honors. He holds degrees from Wingate University, the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School. He currently serves as a Visiting Artist at Wingate.

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