Photography by Jim Salzano

It’s a really good story: A shy young boy from a small Southern city joins the preschool choir at his church and finds that singing allows him to speak when he can’t think of what to say. His church music director sees that he has a gift and refers him to one of the town’s most prominent voice teachers. This teacher also sees the young man’s potential and shepherds him through adolescence to a distinguished college career and then upward and outward to, of all places, the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

This isn’t a fairy tale; it’s the true story of Anthony Dean Griffey, a local talent who has earned the monumental lead role in this month’s Metropolitan Opera production of Peter Grimes. Born and raised in High Point, Griffey has certainly tread paths that most children never even dream of. “He’s come up in the world,” says Howard Coble, Griffey’s first voice teacher and the former minister of music at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church in High Point. “But he hasn’t changed a bit. He’s still Tony.”

After high school, Griffey studied music at Wingate University, completed his master’s degree at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and finished his studies at the Juilliard School. His life since then has been a whirlwind of appearances around the globe - New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Paris - and the chance to work under some of the music world’s most illustrious conductors.

Indeed, this young tenor has garnered praise from many quarters: He is good friends with renowned soprano Renee Fleming, and distinguished conductor, composer, and pianist Andre Previn composed four pieces for Griffey’s Carnegie Hall recital debut, and even flew in to accompany him.

Yet this man, for all his connections and opportunities, chooses to live in High Point. “I have always taken High Point with me on my journey through life,” Griffey says, noting his desire to be connected in a real way to a particular community where he can make a difference. “I travel all over the world, but I feel that each of us needs to give something back to the community that has given to us all.” And it is this need to give back that fuels his advocacy for community investment in the arts, especially school arts programs.

Griffey has become an evangelist of sorts in this endeavor. “My talent was nurtured through the Guilford County school system,” says Griffey, who notes that he is driven by his hope that future generations will have the same opportunities. “Guilford County has people with all different types of gifts. We must start locally for it to grow globally.”

Given these endeavors, it’s not surprising that Griffey’s role at the Met carries a powerful theme. “Peter Grimes is an opera that deals with the hypocrisy of society,” he says. “It has a very strong message about how quick we are to judge others who are different. We are all citizens of the world and must have respect for each other.” Now that’s a song worth singing.

Peter Grimes opened February 28 at the Metropolitan Opera

in New York, and will run through March 24. Catch a live broadcast of Griffey’s performance at Concord Mills 24 in Concord on March 15 at 1:30 p.m., or see an encore on PBS on May 18. For more information, go to anthonydeangriffey.com.