Member Spotlight: Contralto Gráinne Gillis

By Audition Oracle – Tue 7 May 2024 @ 15:49

This weeks Member Spotlight falls on Irish contralto Gráinne Gillis

 
Gráinne Gillis, Contralto

1. How do you describe yourself as an artist?

A multi-hyphenate
 

2. What other skills or passions do you have that help shape you as an artist?

Actor, writer, yoga, politics, long morning walks, Transcendental Meditation, Kirtan, movies, Shakespeare, cabaret
 

3. What has been the most memorable and rewarding experience you have had as an artist?

Toss up between singing Wagner with the late Keel Watson and putting on my own shows - one show specifically, The Contralto Cabaret. It was devised with the late Su Cullen, who was in the chorus at ENO around the same time as Keel, and thinking of it allows me to remember both Keel and Su and how the investment in chorus members extends beyond the ENO...
 

4. What role, company or performing situation would be a dream come true for you as artist? 

Singing at the ROH - the big dream!
 

5. What do you like most about being a creative artist?

Stepping into other people's shoes, creating my own universes
 

6. If you could go back in time and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?

Listen to yourself more than you listen to other people's opinions
 

7. Three words that are the pillars you shape your career by:

Kindness, Authenticity, Fun
 

8. Where can we see you perform next?

Role debut and first German contract as Klytämnestra at the Brandenburger Theater in May!

You can catch Gráinne in several productions over the coming months:

Margret in Wozzeck for Regent's Opera Orchestral Study Day: www.regentsopera.com (May 12th)
Klytämnestra in Elektra: https://www.brandenburgertheater.de/theater/musiktheater.html (May 24th/26th and June 1st)
Schwertleite for Regent's Opera Die Walküre (Ring Cycle Feb 2025)
Wagner/Holmès - a new show by Gráinne Gillis about the Irish diaspora composer Augusta Holmès, kindly supported by Culture Ireland and the Irish Embassy Berlin as part of Zeitgeist Irland 24 - September 2024, details tba