Arthur Wilson began singing solos in church when he was
eight. At eleven, he auditioned for his first opera, Carmen, and
began his stage career in the boys’ chorus. For nineteen years, Mr. Wilson
sang in one of the most prestigious of all volunteer opera choruses in the
United States, The Augusta Opera, Augusta, Georgia.
At the age of sixteen, the choir director at St. Paul’s
Episcopal Church in Augusta recognized Arthur’s talent and he was given a
full-time position at the professional rate, not a student rate. This
launched his career as section leader, soloist and cantor, a career that he
continues to his day. He has sung in numerous Protestant, Catholic and
Jewish Temples.
Throughout high school and college, Arthur won all of
the competitions he entered but one. This included NATS Regional
Competitions and International Choral Festivals. During his college years
at Augusta State, Arthur has worked individually with John McCollum of
Indiana University, and John Alexander and George Shirley and both of
Metropolitan Opera fame.
Not only has Arthur performed in Operas but numerous
musicals including Kiss Me Kate, Anything Goes, Grease, The Wizard of Oz,
and The Music Man. He has been invited four times to the Spoletto
Festival in Charleston, SC. Over the last 26 years, Arthur has performed in
Bermuda, Ottawa and Montreal, Canada, Prague, the Czech Republic, and Brno,
Slovakia, Milan, Florence, Assisi, and Rome, Italy. In October 1999, Arthur
sang in St. Peter’s Basilica as the Cantor for the High Latin Mass and at a
Papal Audience for Pope John Paul II. In 2004, Arthur his debut with the
Aiken-Masterworks Chorale and the USC-Aiken Orchestra on an all Bernstein
Program. He is also a featured tenor in the Evening at Asti’s and
the Augusta Collegium Musicum.
Arthur Wilson began singing solos in church when he was
eight. At eleven, he auditioned for his first opera, Carmen, and
began his stage career in the boys’ chorus. For nineteen years, Mr. Wilson
sang in one of the most prestigious of all volunteer opera choruses in the
United States, The Augusta Opera, Augusta, Georgia.