NEWTOWN — Former Western Connecticut State University student and Connecticut native Matthew Grills, a 2012 winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, is taking his career as an operatic tenor to the international stage with his recent agreement to sing as a featured young artist with the Bavarian State Opera in Germany.
The contract with the opera company in Munich for the 2013-14 season marks the latest in a series of achievements for Grills, a former resident of Sandy Hook.
A member of the Santa Fe (N.M.) Opera apprentice program in summer 2012, he became a resident artist with the Portland Opera in Oregon during the 2012-13 season.
Mr. Grills’ operatic career has soared since his selection in March 2012 as one of five winners in the 2012 Met National Council Auditions that brought together nearly 1,500 singers from 20 to 30 years of age to compete at 41 district and 14 regional auditions in the U.S. and Canada.
His winning performance in the semifinals and the Grand Finals Concert, held at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, earned a $15,000 award and invaluable exposure at an event that annually draws leading opera and music industry professionals to hear emerging new singers.
“Even a year-and-a-half later, I’m still in disbelief that the Met competition ever happened,” he said. “When you reach the semi-finals, you’re working with the best coaches and conductors for one of the greatest houses in the world. I’ll never forget the day of the Finals Concert.”
Mr. Grills’ progress during the past two years toward a successful international career in opera has delighted WCSU Professor of Music Dr. Margaret Astrup, who has coordinated the vocal studies program in the university’s music department for more than two decades.
“Matt was a powerful presence onstage, both dramatically and vocally,” Dr. Astrup observed. “From a musical standpoint, Matt had a beautiful and mature sound and an extremely developed range for someone who was then still a teenager. He sang a high ‘C’ with confidence and grace — a rare accomplishment for any tenor.”
His New York vocal coach, Tyson Deaton, said that he considers Mr. Grills “a very rare commodity in the current opera world. During the 1960s and before, there were these wonderful Italian lyric tenors who could sing with an immense resonance in the middle and low range, had very secure high ranges, and were convincing in just about any repertoire. Lyric tenors are less common now, and Matt is the link to that tradition.”