Musical Art Society receives Grant

Friday, Feb. 28, 2003 | 8:47 a.m.

What: "Grant Griffin's Magical Night of Music."

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Where: The Orleans Showroom.

Tickets: $49.95, $54.95 and $59.95.

Information: 365-7070.

Grant Griffin's rich baritone has been heard around the world during a career that has spanned five decades.

He has sung for kings and presidents, for opera lovers and for pop lovers, for fans of Broadway and of Hollywood.

Wednesday he will sing for the Southern Nevada Musical Art Society in a concert to help raise funds for the non-profit organization headed for 35 years by Paul Peterson.

Peterson says he was happy that Griffin decided to make his organization the beneficiary of this year's concert.

"This will be part of the celebration of our 40th season," said Peterson, who is preparing for a concert of his own on March 13 at the Winchester Community Center.

Griffin's second annual "Magical Night of Music" will be held at The Orleans Showroom, featuring a 26-piece orchestra conducted by Vincent Falcone and guest artists pop/jazz/blues/country singer Jeneane Marie, Latina vocalist Michaelina and opera diva Patricia Welch.

"They are three fabulous ladies who are complementary of each other, each doing her own kind of music," Griffin said.

The concert is being described as a Boston Pops-type of show.

"We aren't doing contemporary music, but great music by great composers of years ago such as Cole Porter and Irving Berlin," Griffin said.

There will also be a liberal sprinkling of opera by the likes of Verdi and other classical composers.

Griffin's career could easily have been one on the opera stage, but he says he finds the music too stifling.

"It's too stuffy for me, professionally," he said. "You are limited by having to follow every note exactly as written. I want to be able to interpret the songs, to make them my own, not repeat them note for note.

"I like to take a song and express it in arrangements that have never been heard before."

Griffin held his first benefit "Magical Night of Music" last year. The event, which was for the Southern Nevada Opera Association, did a turn-away business and motivated him and his producers to do an encore this year.

"A lot of the music in the concert harkens back to old Las Vegas, the kind of music seldom heard onstage anymore," he said. "This music spans the ages of time."

Larry Hart, who wrote and produced the popular musical "Sisterella" now playing in Los Angeles, has produced and directed both of Griffin's local concerts.

"I have surrounded myself with total professionals," he said. "They are top-quality artists."

Griffin says locals seemed to thoroughly enjoy last year's performance, and he would like to present it once a month.

"Maybe some casino could pick it up for their showroom on an off night," he said.

Griffin, a native of Athens, N.Y., started in Las Vegas as a production show singer in.

"It was at the Sahara hotel in 1956," he recalled. "I didn't like it and stepped out after one show."

Griffin went on to star in "Tenderloin," a Broadway show at the defunct Dunes, among other productions.

Griffin's voice opened operatic doors for him when he was still in his teens. He sang briefly with the Staatsopera in Vienna, Austria, briefly at age 19.

He performed with Los Angeles and San Francisco Civic Light Operas for five years each and for several years with the Sand Diego Light Opera.

Besides performing on opera stages, Griffin has sung on cruise ships and in concert halls around the world as well as nightclubs and on university campuses.

He and his former wife, Poupee Boccaccio, toured extensively in the '60s and '70s.

"Then one day I got a call from my agent," Griffin recalled. "He said, 'Are you standing or sitting?' "

The bad news was that the couples' concert dates had been canceled.

"Disco hit the world and major clubs everywhere were either closing or become disco houses," Griffin said. "Bands were fired left and right. Disco was a cheaper way to go."

There were few places left for Griffin and his wife to perform, so she became a professional artist and he threw himself into the business world.

One of his investments in the early '90s was Roller Derby, a sport that was born in 1935 remained popular through the '60s.

The investment was not the most profitable he ever made and so he bailed out in 1994 after about a year.

"The problem was we didn't try to bring it into the 20th century," he said. "At the last minute we tried to make some changes, but funds ran out."

He compared his concert to his venture into Roller Derby.

"Life is an adventure," Griffin said. "You take your shot, you gamble and do your thing. You are only here once, so make the most of it. I have the same attitude when we do our show -- make the most of what you have."