Henry Griffin, described as “luminous” and “supremely tender” by the Chautauqua Daily, is a 24-year-old baritone who recently graduated with his Bachelor’s from the Manhattan School of Music with the Hugh Ross Award for a “singer of unusual promise.” Henry has sung all of his life including solo boy soprano debuts with the the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 11, the Lyric Opera of Chicago at age 12, and solo voice and piano recitals starting at age 15. Andrew Patner of the Chicago Sun-Times described Henry as “one of the finest boy sopranos you’ll ever hear” following his performance of the Shepherd Boy solo in Puccini’s Tosca in 2011 with the CSO.

 

More recently, Henry has been found singing the roles of Germont in La Traviata at Opera in the Ozarks (2024), Keeper of the Madhouse in The Rake’s Progress at Verbier Festival (2023), Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Prague Summer Nights young artist program at the Castleton Festival (2022), as well as The Forester in The Cunning Little Vixen (2022), Dr. Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro (2021), Toby in 110 in the Shade (2020), and Snug in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2019), all at the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory. In summer 2021, Henry also covered the role of the Commentator in Derrick Wang’s opera Scalia/Ginsburg as well as opera scenes with the Chautauqua Opera Company. At the Manhattan School of Music, Henry has performed in scene programs as the roles of Hamlet in Thomas’ Hamlet (2022), Judas in Massenet’s Marie-Magdalene (2022), and Frank in Kiss me Kate (2021). His 2021-2022 season brought numerous concert engagements including bass soloist in Mozart's Requiem, followed by that of Faure's Requiem just a few months later (both with the Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra), as well as the role of Pilate in a staged production of Bach's Passion According to St. John with the Opera NextDoor at the Co-cathedral of St. Joseph in April 2022. In January 2023, Henry performed assorted art songs, including an original composition titled warm water flows, on a recital curated by Anthony Roth Costanzo, Myra Huang, and the Gerda-Lissner Foundation featuring young artists at the Greene Space NYC, aired on WQXR NYC.

 

In addition to singing, Henry is also a pianist, arranger, composer, and conductor. He has played piano since the age of 6 and recently performed multiple recitals of four-hands piano repertoire, including a performance in June 2021 which aired live on WFMT Chicago as part of the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series. Henry is also a budding composer: He re premiered his original song cycle, "During the daylight warm water flows" as part of his degree recital at the Manhattan School of Music in February 2023 with pianist Kanae Matsumoto. Additionally, Henry studies at the Eastman School of Music as the Robert P. Fountain Fellow in conducting, expecting to graduate in May of 2025.

 

In the fall of 2022, Henry would have made his Carnegie Hall solo debut on November, 30 2022 in Paul Moravec’s world premiere A Nation of Others with the Oratorio Society of New York led by Kent Tritle, but unfortunately tested positive for Covid-19 on the day of. Henry studied at the Manhattan School of Music where he is sang the role of Ottone in L’incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi with the MSM Undergraduate Opera Theater & Orchestra in May of 2023 just before graduating with his Bachelor’s degree in classical voice and the Hugh Ross Award, given annually to a “singer of unusual promise.” After his aforementioned fellowship at the Mostly Modern Festival, Henry was a young artist in the Opera and Song Programmes of the Verbier Academy’s Atelier Lyrique in Switzerland. There, he performed the role of Keeper of the Madhouse in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress with the Verbier Festival Orchestra led by James Gaffigan. In 2024, Henry was a young artist at Opera on the James in Lynchburg, VA and won the full-ride fellowship award to Opera in the Ozarks to sing Germont in Verdi’s La Traviata.