Early Life and Education
Anthony Dean Griffey was born in High Point, North Carolina to a family of little means. Both his parents worked in the local furniture factories. He first began singing at the age of five in his local church. He started to study voice in high school, and subsequently attended Wingate University as a music major, with the intention of becoming a music minister (a clergy position which oversees all musical aspects of a church). At the encouragement of his teachers at Wingate, Griffey auditioned successfully for the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where he studied with John Maloy. Griffey double majored in vocal performance and literature, receiving a Master's of Music/Performer's Certificate. After completing his studies at Eastman, he was recommended by Rita Shane and Renee Fleming to audition at The Juilliard School for Beverley Peck Johnson, who would become Griffey's teacher and mentor until her death in 2001. Shortly after entering Juilliard he auditioned for James Levine and joined the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist's program.
Read more about this topic: Anthony Dean Griffey
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or education:
“He had long before indulged most unfavourable sentiments of our fellow-subjects in America. For, as early as 1769,... he had said of them, “Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for any thing we allow them short of hanging.””
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“There is no intrinsic worth in money but what is alterable with the times, and whether a guinea goes for twenty pounds or for a shilling, it is ... the labour of the poor and not the high and low value that is set on gold or silver, which all the comforts of life must arise from.”
—Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733)
“Law without education is a dead letter. With education the needed law follows without effort and, of course, with power to execute itself; indeed, it seems to execute itself.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)