Flint Hill an unlikely home for two powerful operatic singers
Sharing a passion for opera, both young men have Asperger Syndrome
Two young men, from disparate backgrounds, growing up thousands of miles apart, tell the story of life’s myriad intersections, and serendipitous happenings, in their case resulting in a brotherhood of friendship.
They are both alumni of the Castleton Festival, a common denominator and springboard to their success and friendship. Elliott Matheny and Matt Brooks, both gifted opera singers, live in Flint Hill.
Both perform often with regional opera companies, but also grace local venues with their powerful voices, bringing the house down with renditions of famed operas including works by Puccini, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Lehar, Gershwin, Mozart, Verdi, Beethoven, and more.
In recent weeks, their performance before a packed audience of Ladies Luncheon members showcased their versatility, not only killing it with Nessun Dorma, from Puccini’s Turandot, but also bringing tears to eyes with show tunes such as “South Pacific’s” hallmark, namely “Some Enchanted Evening.”
Matthew, a tenor, has recently undergone tutelage in Wagnerian opera repertoire under the famed Wagner soprano Jane Eaglen, under the auspices of Pittsburgh Festival Opera’s Mastersinger project. And the Washington Post recently hailed Elliott for making a “sharp impression” as Polydorus in “L’Enfance du Christ,” with In Series Opera. Elliott can be seen next as “St. George,” in John Rutter’s “The Reluctant Dragon.”
Elliott and Matt share more than a passion for singing, they share a developmental disorder that affects social communication, interaction and behavior, namely Asperger Syndrome. Opera in many ways, for them, with the might of a knight’s whistling sword brandished in “Saint George and the Dragon,” is a powerful metaphor for the slaying of their personal dragon. Not unlike many with Asperger’s, both are strong visual and auditory learners. While they may appear shy in the company of strangers, once they perform, game over.
Matt, stuttering as a young boy and man, hails from Arkansas, his siblings all took piano lessons, his speech therapist counseled against music for him. He was accepted to Columbia, with a political psychology and double economics major, and dropped out within a few weeks. His stuttering ended in his early twenties, coincidentally, he started singing in his early twenties.
For awhile he lived a vagabond existence. Matt recalls, “Aaron Kellert was the music director at St. Gregory’s University, which is where I met him and… for giggles I decided with Aaron’s encouragement to sing
Sondheim for my audition.”.
At home, Matt received a letter in the mail, an acceptance, and his mom upon reading it said, “You sing opera? When did this happen?”
Neil Shicoff, a great tenor performing with Castleton, prompted Matt to apply for a coveted spot at the summer festivals. Nancy Gustafson, then manager of the festival, met Matt at Northwestern University as he was unable to make the auditions in Rappahannock.
Matt tells with great poignance of a reference to “A Prayer For Owen Meany” — “If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to have the courage to live it.”
When he arrived in Rappahannock he fell in love with the sheer beauty, so he moved here.
“I took the plunge,” he says with an engaging smile. “We all make sacrifices in our choices, and you can’t worry about what’s expedient, you want to be happy. Bloom into it, bloom into your life no matter what the costs.”
Elliott grew up in a musical family in Las Vegas, both his parents were performers, his mom a singer, his dad a jazz pianist. The band would practice in the garage, they’d perform at various venues and as a young boy Elliott loved to sing.
He tells it was “my refuge, my constant companion, my way of interacting with the world and communicating as I was not comfortable sharing one on one.”
He sang in choirs and took voice lessons. While he wanted to become an attorney, like his dad, music prevailed. Many of his teachers were operatically trained and so his voyage into the world of Verdi’s and Mozart’s was sealed.
He too applied to the Castleton Festival and was accepted. The road trip for the audition enabled him to drive through Delaware and visit his beloved grandfather, and Elliott is grateful for that last visit as he died shortly thereafter.
He fell in love, as did Matt, with the Valhalla we call Rappahannock and moved here. He says with a charming smile on his handsome face, “You have one shot, and I might as well be happy while I’m here.”
You are both Rappahannock jewels Matt and Elliott and we as a community are honored that you chose to live here and grace us with your gorgeous gift of song and your delightful charm.
To engage them for performances and special events, including weddings, funerals, parties, fundraisers and the like, they can be reached at mjbrookstenor@gmail.com and mathenyelliot@gmail.com
Elliott fell in love, as did Matt, with Rappahannock and moved here. He says with a charming smile on his handsome face, “You have one shot, and I might as well be happy while I’m here.”