American 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 praise. Mr. Griffey has a new live recording of Britten’s War Requiem just released with Mo. Kurt Masur and the London Philharmonic.
In the 2006-2007 season Anthony Dean Griffey sings Peter Quint in Turn of the Screw with Fundacion Festival de Opera de Oviedo, Jim Mahoney in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny in his debut with with Los Angeles Opera, Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with the San Francisco Symphony with Maestro Tilson Thomas in Lucerne, Switzerland, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah under the baton on Seiji Ozawa at the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan and in Florence at the Teatro Comunale di Firenze. Further, Mr. Griffey sings a centenary concert of Elgar’s The Kingdom with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at the Birmingham Festival in England, Britten’s Seranade and War Requiem with the Aspen Music Festival, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Milwaukee Symphony, the role of Guido Bardi in Zemlinsky's Eine florentinische Tragödie at the Ravinia Festival with Maestro James Conlon, and solo recitals at both the Aspen Music Festival and Northwestern University.
In the future Mr. Griffey sings leading roles with The Metropolitan Opera, San Diego Opera and the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra among numerous others.
In the summer of 2005, Mr. Griffey made his highly successful Santa Fe Opera debut in the title role of Britten’s Peter Grimes, a role he has also performed at the Metropolitan Opera, the Paris Opera, and the Glyndebourne Festival. He began the 2005-2006 season with performances of Britten’s Spring Symphony with the Oslo Philharmonic followed by Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. In November, he adds the first of several new roles to his repertoire, that of Florestan in Fidelio, with the Florentine Opera of Milwaukee. Immediately following, , followed by performances of Handel’s Messiah with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He will also appear in the Richard Tucker Foundation Gala in January at Avery Fisher Hall, followed by performances of Elgar’s The Dream of Gernontius in Madrid. In March, In the spring, Mr. Griffey also had the distinction of being invited expressly by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to perform in recital at the Supreme Court of the United States with pianist Margo Garrett. Additional appearances this season included Mr. Griffey’s debut with the Toronto Symphony singing Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Sir Andrew Davis conducting, Bruckner’s Te Deum and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Greensboro Symphony, the Mozart Requiem in Torino, Mozart’s Coronation Mass with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, a recital in Cleveland, and also performances of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with the San Francisco Symphony, again under Tilson Thomas.
Anthony Dean Griffey has sung leading roles at The Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera , San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Glyndebourne, the Bregenz Festival, and Opera Bastille as well as numerous others.
Mr. Griffey is one of the leading soloists of his generation in the symphonic/choral repertoire. He appears regularly with most of the leading orchestras in the United States and in Europe. These include the orchestras of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Saint Louis, Minnesota, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Houston, Detroit, Baltimore and Saint Paul. Internationally, he has sung with the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Müncher Symphoniker, Orchestre de Paris, Montreal Symphony, Toronto Symphony, the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest Holland, the NHK Symphony in Japan, and the Halle Orchestra, among others.
He has collaborated with many of today’s most prestigious conductors, including James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, André Previn, Michael Tilson Thomas, Esa Pekka Salonen, Kurt Masur, Donald Runnicles, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph Eschenbach, Valery Gergiev, Edo de Waart, Sir Neville Mariner, James Conlon, Maris Jansons, Naemi Jarvi, Charles Dutoit, Julius Rudel, Robert Spano, Mark Wigglesworth, Alan Gilbert, Andreas Delfs, Gerard Schwarz, Mark Elder, and John Nelson, among others.
Mr. Griffey also appears regularly with several popular festivals as Tanglewood, Mostly Mozart, Saito Kinen, Grant Park, Marlboro, Grand Teton, and the “Proms” in London. At the 2004 Lanaudière Festival in Montreal, Mr. Griffey sang a particularly interesting program, including two major works, Chausson’s Poème de l'Amour et de la Mer, and Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915. He was the first tenor to program the latter.
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 the fall of 2004, Mr. Griffey made his tremendously successful New York solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall with Warren Jones. André Previn composed a song cycle to commemorate the event, which was dedicated to Mr. Griffey, and also accompanied him at the piano for the cycle.
In addition to his participation in the recording of Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire for Deutsche Grammophon (also available on DVD), 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.
Mr. Griffey has been featured on several live television broadcasts. He was the tenor soloist in a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony conducted by Seiji Ozawa in celebration of the opening of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Additionally, he was featured in a performance of Das Lied von der Erde on the BBC as part of the BBC “Proms” concerts, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach. To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the American premiere of Peter Grimes, Mr. Griffey was featured in A Tale of Tanglewood that was also conducted by Ozawa at the Tanglewood Festival, and televised on Ovation.
Anthony Dean Griffey has been the recipient of many awards and honors. In the 2005 edition of Musical America, he was cited as one of twelve exceptional singers of distinction. He has also been featured with André Previn on A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts. He holds degrees from Wingate University, the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School.
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