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The Finnish bass, Walton Grönroos, tudied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki,, and in 1966 passed his examination as a cantor and organist. 1964-71 he served as a church musician in the Finnish town Lapinjärvi. He then went to Vienna to train his voice to Vienna, and he gave his first concert there in 1971. In the same year he also appeared in concert in Helsinki and in 1973 in Stockholm. In 1975 he won the Timo Mustakallio Competition at the Festival of Savonlinna.
In 1975, Walton Grönroos was ebgaged at the Deutsche Opernhaus Berlin, where he made his operatic debut as Antonio in The Marriage of Figaro. Since then, he appeared at this opera house in many areas, including as the Count in Figaro, Marquis Posa in Don Carlos by Verdi, Cardinal Morone in Hans Pfitzner's Palestrina, Don Giovnni, Papageno in Zauberflöte, Malaatesta in Don Pasquale and Wolfram in Tannhäuser. In 1974 he made a guest performance at the Opera House in Helsinki, where he was often heard, including as Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor in 1990. At the Festival of Savonlinna, he performed as Posa in Don Carlos, as a guest at the Opera of Frankfurt aM in 1987, he sang with the Maggio Musicale of Florence in Capriccio by Richard Strauss. In 1984, he made his American debut at the Opera House in Washington as the Count in Nozze di Figaro; in 1987 he performed at the Opera of Houston/Texas as Wolfram in Tannhäuser.
Walton Grönroos had a distinguished career as a concert, oratorio and Lieder singer. In 1979 he sang in London St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244) by J.S. Bach, in 1981 in Paris, concert performances in Berlin and other centers of German musical life, and of course in his native Finland.
From 1987 to 1991, Walton Grönroos was director of the Savonlinna Festival in Finland; from 1992 to 1996 Artistic Director of the National Opera in Helsinki; since 1996 director of the Royal Opera in Stockholm
Recordings: Finlandia, HMV (Lieder by Schubert, Tannhäuser, Kung Karls Jakt by Pacius), BIS (Lieder by Johannes Brahms, Sibelius and Rangström, Requiem by Kokkonen), Orfeo (Iphigenie auf Tauris by Gluck), RCA Erato (Iolanthe by Tchaikovsky), HMV-Electrola (choral ballads by R. Schumann), Denon (Gurrelieder by Arnold Schoenberg). |
