Victoria Gray: Amore

May 2012

I DIDN’T even like opera until I was 15 when my mum took me too see a production of The Marriage of Figaro at Glyndebourne. My cousin was playing the trumpet in the orchestra and he got us tickets for the dress rehearsal.

Neither of us thought we’d enjoy it. We saw it as simply a good day out. I thought that if it was boring we could leave at the interval and go to the pub.

But I just fell in love with it. Even though I knew nothing about it.

Even now I can go to see an opera and not have a clue what’s going on without reading the synopsis.

But that experience really affirmed what I wanted to work towards.

I’d already been singing with (Mansfield girls’ choir) Cantamus when I was at the Minster School. We travelled to Germany, Italy and China, where were crowned Olympic Champions in 2007.

Because of Cantamus I didn’t see a lot of concerts but I loved pop music. At school we put on a show as the Spice Girls and I was Posh Spice. Because I was Victoria and I had a bob. Although secretly I wanted to be Baby Spice.

My poor parents... when my friends came round we’d create a new routine and perform it for them. I think we did The Shoop Shoop Song with teddy bears at one point. I did see Will Young in Nottingham because my mum won a competition on Trent FM by singing down the phone.

I went to the Royal College of Music in London when I was 18. I’m still finishing my masters there. I’ve a couple of exams left to do.

It’s where I met the other members of Amore. We’ve known each other for a long time but we only got together as Amore because we heard that Warner Music were looking to sign a new opera group.

We signed a six-album deal with them we’ll be releasing the first at the end of May.

We had a showcase in London recently in front of the media and concert bookers to show what we could do. I don’t think any of us have ever been that nervous.

We’ve performed in operas together and individually all over the world but we’ve only been together as Amore for a few months.

It was all a bit surreal. The hotel was so posh; there was a TV in the bathroom, which made us a little hyper.

From that showcase we went on to appear on BBC Breakfast and Sky News. Eamonn Holmes was lovely. Even though I did have to do my Katherine Jenkins impression for him, which was quite embarrassing.

We’re appearing on This Morning on May 28, which is the day our album is released.

From this coming Monday until the Jubilee on June 3 we’ll be performing all over the country as part of an event called Serenading Britain. On our website people can contact us and request that we perform at a special event or a birthday or anniversary. We’ll come and serenade you.

My boyfriend is the captain of Kimberley Cricket Club and we’ll hopefully be performing at a night they have there soon. That would be our first performance in Nottinghamshire.

After that we’ve a number of festival dates booked over the summer, including a few dates with Russell Watson.

There’s likely to be another album before Christmas and hopefully we’ll do a tour of the UK early next year.

We aim to perform a full opera next summer. Il Divo and Katherine Jenkins have done amazing things for classical music and brought opera to the masses but we’re hoping to take that a step further by really showing what goes into presenting an opera.

I live in London but I’m back and forth all the time. I was out in Nottingham last weekend. I was in Revolution. It’s probably not where you’d normally find opera singers.

Amore’s debut album, Stand Together, is released May 28, with their debut single, The Brindisi, out on May 21. For a video of that go to www.weareamore.com. You call follow Victoria on Twitter: @Vic_GrayMezzo.

Victoria Gray

February 2010

She is inbetween movement classes.
Eh?
“Thinking of different centrepoints for different emotions.”
Eh?
“When you have to take on a character from an opera, say, you’re being snooty you think of your chest and sticking it out and being pompous.”
Nope, don’t get that.
The classes, whatever they’re for, are part of an eight year course at the Royal College of Music in London which Bilsthorpe opera trainee Victoria Gray is half-way through.
It’s the stage at which Katherine Jenkins quit to become a popera star.
Victoria, 22, wouldn’t mind the fame and riches but her focus is on finishing the course and becoming a professional opera singer.
But she needs to raise £10,000 per year to carry on with the post-graduate degree then opera school.
“The tuition you get here is the best but it’s so expensive,” she says.
The figure covers the tuition fees. She pays the rent with a part-time job as a singing waitress.
A what?
“It’s a restaurant in Lancaster Gate called Bel Canto. People will be eating their dinner, the piano will start up and one of us will sing opera while walking around the tables. It’s such a funny concept but it really works.
“And it’s great practice. You’re testing out new pieces and new arias all the time.”
The former Minster School pupil was a member of Cantamus, the all girl choir based in Mansfield, travelling to Germany, Italy and China, where, in 2007, they were crowned World Choir Olympic Champions.
“I was with the choir for ten years and it’s where I got my passion for it and the necessary discipline,” she says.
Victoria was also the first singer to win The Nottingham Young Musician Competition, in 2005.
Dad, a former boxer, is a court usher while mum works for the NHS. Her musical gift comes more from her grandparents.
“Both my parents are tone deaf,” she laughs.
“The voice comes from my grandma. She did music at university. My grandad was one of the first members of the Salvation Army band and he played trombone with the Edwinstowe Colliery Band.”
As a petite blonde Victoria knows she’s far from the traditional bulky opera singer.
“The first opera I saw, I thought it would be somebody fat with horns on their head, screaming.”
I’ve had those nightmares.
“But it was so much more than that. They were so physical and their acting conveyed every emotion you could possible imagine. And even though it was in Italian you’d be laughing with them, then crying.”
Aren’t most opera singers great hefers?
“No, not at all. These days you’re turned away if you’re overweight because you have to be so physically fit to sustain a role. I once had to leap on to a tenor’s back while singing.”
As part of a sponsorship deal with Mansfield’s Direct Recording Systems, Victoria will soon record a demo and video to help sell her to prospective sponsors.
So, following Katherine Jenkins isn’t out of the question?
“I really respect what she’s done in bringing opera to the masses but she’ll never have a career in an opera house. And that’s what I really want. To travel the world singing opera.”
You could do both.
“I’d love to eventually.”
So if Simon Cowell offered you an album deal singing Westlife opera style...?
“I would. It’d be a great way of earning the money to continue my studies.”
Should she make it as a professional singer Victoria will be following in the footsteps of another ex-Minster School pupil: Alvin Stardust
“Who?”
Ask your dad.
Maybe you should change your name to Victoria Starburst.
“I like that. I’m going to use that.”
You read it here first...

Victoria Gray, with Anthony Gregory, the Cantamus Ensemble and Michael Neaum, Queen Elizabeth School, Mansfield, Saturday February 20, 7.30 pm.
Tickets: £10, 01623 627764