Duchesne Woman Spotlight: Grace Heldridge A'17
- Duchesne Today
Grace Heldridge A’17 will say ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ to her life in the States later this summer as she travels to Berlin, Germany to sing with the Komische Oper Berlin.
Heldridge discovered her love of music at a young age while singing in the choir at her church. That’s where she learned the art of opera. When she arrived at Duchesne, she was set on becoming an opera singer.
“Mrs. Eller encouraged me to audition for a lot of the choir festivals like All-State,” Heldridge remembered. “I found a lot of success in those, I realized ‘maybe this is something I’m good at’.”
Her love of music quickly bloomed into a love of musical theater. While she had many small roles in theater productions while at Duchesne, Heldridge said her first musical ‘You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown’ sparked a new form of joy in performing.
“My role as Snoopy opened my eyes to comedic acting and musical theater. That influenced a lot of what I did in undergrad,” she said.
After graduating from Duchesne, Heldridge attended the University of Kansas where she earned her B.M. in Vocal Performance. While at KU, she performed with the KU Opera and served as Executive Director of the Rock Chalk Revue (RCR). The RCR is a student-run philanthropic organization where she had the opportunity to co-write, direct, produce, choreograph, and perform original one act musicals. She won numerous awards such as Best Performance by a Female Lead, Best Original Song, Best Story, and Best Vocal Performance.
“I think my love of musical theater comes from my experience from Duchesne,” Heldridge said. “Mr. Becker introduced us to a lot of plays and it was really fun.”
Doors continued to open for Heldridge as she continued her singing career. In 2023 she performed with Central City Opera, the Brookline Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston Conservatory of Berklee. She won several awards including being named a semi-finalist in the Mass Opera Competition and the NextGen National Vocal Competition, among many others.
Recently, Heldridge graduated with an M.M. in Opera Performance from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Right now she’s performing with Opera Maine during their summer season. In August she will join Internationales Opernstudio at Komische Oper Berlin for the next two seasons.
“Moving to another country will be a challenge,” Heldridge said. “I take big leaps, and I’m excited to go for it!”
Heldridge returned to Duchesne in April to see her sister, Annie, receive her ring during Ring Ceremony. This was the first time she had seen Duchesne’s new Theater since its construction.
“I hope Duchesne keeps flourishing,” she said. “I would love to see the arts continue to grow, and to encourage students to try new things. You never know if it’s something that could become your passion.”
- fine arts