Soprano Amanda Grooms recently attained her Master’s Degree from Rice University where she sang the roles of Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Adina in L’elisir d’amore, and Armida in Handel’s Rinaldo. Shortly before pursuing her graduate studies, Ms. Grooms performed the roles of Micaëla in Carmen, and Violetta in La Traviata with the Aspen Music Festival under the baton of Julius Rudel, and was a winner of the 2006 Vocal Concerto Competition, and performed in concert under the baton of George Manahan and the Sinfonia Orchestra, as well as being featured in several orchestral opera scenes master classes with James Conlon and Patrick Summers. Other operatic roles include Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte with Opera Vivente, Giannetta in L’elisir d’amore with Opera Birmingham, the title role in Mozart’s Zaïde in the Midwest premier of his unfinished opera with the Milwaukee Opera Theatre, and the Mother in Amahl & the Night Vistors with Midwest Lyric Opera. In 2005, Ms. Grooms was a studio artist with Sarasota Opera where she sang Ellen in Delibes‘ Lakmé and covered Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and was an apprentice artist the previous season where she covered the role of Königen der Nacht in Die Zauberflöte. Ms. Grooms was a member of the 2004 and 2005 Gerdine Young Artist Program with Opera Theatre Saint Louis, and appeared with OTSL singing in their 30th Anniversary Opera Gala.

Ms. Grooms is the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, including being named a National Finalist in the 2007 and 2009 Palm Beach Opera Competition, a grant winner from The Anna Sosenko Assist Trust 2009, 2nd place in the Young Patronesses of the Opera 2007 Vocal Competition, the 2006 Encouragement Prize from the Sullivan Foundation, and the 2006 Top Prize Scholarship from the Arleen Auger Memorial Fund. She has been a winner of the Saint Louis District Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions on three different occasions, taking 2nd Place at the Regional Finals in 2003 and 2006.

Equally at home on the recital and concert stage, Ms. Grooms has made concert appearances in Salzburg, Vienna, Milan, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Washington D.C., Milwaukee, and Saint Louis. She most recently won first place with the Mid-Texas Symphony Vocal Competition, and was featured as a guest soloist in their 2009 holiday concert “An Olde English Christmas.” Ms. Grooms has appeared as the soprano soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana, Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem and Neus Liebeslieder, and Vaughn Williams’ Serenade to Music. She has sung at the famed Sheldon Concert Hall in Saint Louis with members of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra for Mozart’s 250th Anniversary Celebration, and will be featured again in the Sheldon’s Notes from Home series in April 2010. Ms. Grooms has performed numerous works by new composers, including two world premieres, and most recently the American Premiere of celebrated Italian composer Matteo D’Amico’s Stabat Mater hosted by Rice University and the Italian Consulate of Houston.


Ms. Grooms graduated in 2001 with her Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Performance from DePauw University. During her undergraduate studies, Ms. Grooms lived a year abroad in Milan, Italy, and returned after graduation to sing the Countess in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro with the Rossini Festival Orchestra. She has since returned to study advanced Italian at both the Scuola di Lorenzo de Medici and Centro Studi Italiani. Ms. Grooms has studied French with the Alliance Française, German with the Goethe House, and further German studies with the Internationale Sommerakademie Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.