Welcome Bass-Baritone, Calvin Griffin

Acclaimed for his “darkly lustrous voice” (South Florida Classical Review), Calvin Griffin, of Columbus Ohio, just finished an exciting 2021–2022 season. Mr. Griffin made his debut with The Metropolitan Opera as well as Lyric Opera of Chicago in the role of Adult Robert in Fire Shut Up in My Bones. He also made his debut with Spoleto Festival USA as Colline in La Bohème, and returned to Opera Columbus as Tommy McIntyre in Fellow Travelers. Other recent engagements include his debut at Florentine Opera as Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro, covering Lesbo in Agrippina with The Metropolitan Opera, returning to Atlanta Opera to sing Der Lautsprecher in Der Kaiser Von Atlantis and El Dancaïro in Carmen, debuting at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Teacher 2/Grandma/Father in On the Edge, and returning to Wolf Trap Opera to sing Death in Sāvitri. This season, Mr. Griffin will return to The Metropolitan Opera to cover Leader of the King’s Guards in Medea, Doctor Grenvil in La traviata, and Young Emile Griffith in Champion. In concert, Mr. Griffin has sung with the Richmond Symphony as the bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah, and as soloist in Opera Columbus’ Opera Swings Jazz concert. He made his Houston Symphony debut as First Apprentice in the Grammy Award winning production of Wozzeck. Other solo performances include Bach’s B Minor Mass with Choral Artists of Sarasota, and the baritone soloist in Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem at The Ohio State University, as well as Worthington United Methodist Church. In competition, Mr. Griffin won 1st Place in the 2017 Dorothy Lincoln Smith Voice Competition. He was the 2015 winner of the Igor Gorin Memorial Award, was awarded a Western Region Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Encouragement Award in 2014, 1st Place winner in the 2012 Tuesday Musical Club Competition in San Antonio, 1st Place winner in the 2011 Hal Leonard Vocal Competition, and was awarded a Central Region Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Encouragement Award in 2010. He was also a winner in the Cincinnati College-Conservatory’s Corbett Competition and was awarded the Linda Candler Award at the Brevard Music Center.