Finding fame aged just 15, Mark Vincent has gone on to become one of the most acclaimed modern-day tenors.
FIFTEEN years after inking a record deal with Sony at the age of 15, Mark Vincent has since become Australia’s most beloved tenors.
But it might have been a whole different story if not for the wisdom-fuelled words of Bruno Riccio, his grandfather.
“He was a huge influence on me,” Vincent said.
“Bruno raised me as a child because my parents had divorced.
“He was a true believer in me and what I could be as a musician.
“It was my Nonno who saw it all those years ago, when I was just a nine-year-old child.
“I was working in my grandparents’ restaurant and one night he said to me, what is it that you want to do with your life?
“I told him that I wanted to be a singer and he said, well, sing something then.
“I sang to him that beautiful song by Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli, Time To Say Goodbye.
“He said to me, look, I am telling you right now that there’s something there, you have a gift.
“And that’s when it all started.
“The tragic part was, that in 2007, on New Year’s Eve, he passed away very suddenly.”
Bruno’s passing meant he did not have an opportunity to watch his grandson audition on Australia’s Got Talent in 2009 when Vincent stunned the nation with his powerful and emotional rendition of Puccini’s, Nessun Dorma.
His voice, mature beyond its years, ensured that he won the TV talent show.
The next five years were filled with successful tours, record breaking sales, chart topping recordings and recognition from peers and the public.
“He never saw my performance but part of me does believe that he watched it from above,” Vincent said.
“It’s something that will always be sacred in my heart.
“I still hear his voice in my head and feel his presence.
“Not a day goes past when I don’t think of him, or he appears in my dreams; it is his way of communicating with me.”
Vincent is now one of this country’s most cherished tenors and he has recorded and released 10 albums, with eight of these having soared to No.1 on the ARIA Classical Crossover charts.
- star is now touring the nation with new show Impossible Dream With Opera Australia soprano Julie Lea Goodwin.
He said the show would celebrate a rich repertoire of classical musical theatre songs and arias made popular by the great artists.
“I have been wanting to do a show like this for a very long time and collaborating with Julie Lea Goodman makes this extra-special,” Vincent said.
“These will be the songs that everybody knows and loves but given the full treatment on stage in a shared experience that cannot be replicated by listening to them on radio.
“I connect very deeply with these songs.
“The key to being a great performer is expressing your emotions from life’s experiences through the means of a song.
“I could not have sung Through the Eyes of a Child 10 years ago as I wasn’t a father back then, and had no way to understand how that truly felt – often while performing, tears will well in my eyes.”
