Ariana Grande in “Wicked,” Timothée Chalamet in “A Complete Unknown” and Angelina Jolie in “Maria”: What these performances have in common – besides a strong shot at Oscar nominations – is the man who coached each of their voices to their highest highs: esteemed Los Angeles vocal coach Eric Vetro.
Vetro has been down this award-winning yellow brick road before with singers and actors, particularly through musical biographies. Along with coaching Renée Zellweger to Oscar victory as Judy Garland in “Judy,” and Hugh Jackman to a Tony win as Peter Allen in “The Boy from Oz,” Vetro worked with Austin Butler on his Oscar-nominated turn as “Elvis” and Riley Keough on her Emmy-nommed role in “Daisy Jones & the Six.” Currently, Vetro is coaching Jeremy Allen White for his Bruce Springsteen “Nebraska”-era biopic “Deliver Me from Nowhere” and, beyond that, KJ Apa as Sublime singer Bradley Nowell in a still-unnamed film.
To portray such iconic artists, Vetro has one rule. “Our goal is finding the essence of that person – inhabiting them – and bringing that alive without imitation,” says Coach Eric from his L.A. home studio.
For this vocal coach and voice teacher, bringing non-fiction and fictional characters to life through song is job number one.
Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in “La La Land?” Vetro. Lea Michele in 2022’s Broadway revival of “Funny Girl” and Bette Midler’s Tony win for 2017’s B-way revival of “Hello Dolly?” Vetro.
His work isn’t just about acting roles. Platinum artists Sabrina Carpenter, Pink, Lorde, Rosalía, Juanes, John Legend and Camilla Cabello have all called on Vetro, to say nothing of his coaching Grande through all her albums and stage work since she was 13.
“Our first working experience was on Skype from her then-home in Boca Raton, before she ever lived in New York or L.A.,” says Vetro of Grande who, in 2008, was cast in “13,” composer Jason Robert Brown’s teen Broadway musical.
Vetro was already on board with Brown and teaching “13’s” male lead, Graham Phillips, before Grande set up camp. “Ariana’s mom was nervous because her daughter had already been through one lesson with another instructor that turned out too operatic,” says Vetro. “But she heard how Graham’s vocal sounded natural and easy with me, so Ariana and I began working together, and after ‘13’ we just kept going.”
When Grande first moved to L.A., she lived two blocks away from Vetro, with the pair working together five days a week. “Beyond unbelievable vocals – she has violins in her voice – Ariana is very smart and very musical, open to knowing proper technique and how to sing in a healthy way,” he says. “For her albums and tours, she needs to be limitless.”
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Vetro laughs at the irony of how, for her role as Glinda, Grande needed to move from her soprano’s soulful nuances and whistle register into “Wicked’s” operatic staginess.
“Stephen Schwartz’s music is much different than what she usually sings, so for ‘Wicked,’ we worked on Ariana’s voice in a way that was more of a Broadway legit soprano, more operatic,” says Vetro. “That was easy for us as Ariana already had that potential. She’s an insanely good mimic, but wanted to create this truly authentic voice for Glinda. And it was very natural, never forced. Ariana wanted to create her own sound, which she did, even before her first audition.”
Vocal coach Eric Vetro and Ariana Grande
Courtesy Eric Vetro
Once she got “Wicked,” Grande and Vetro worked for several months in L.A. before filming commenced in London, where their continued sessions occurred over FaceTime. Additionally, Vetro taught Jonathan Bailey (Fiyero Tigelaar in “Wicked”) via FaceTime as the actor flew back and forth from London to Toronto, simultaneously filming “Fellow Travellers,” “Wicked” and his more famous role in “Bridgerton.”
Another actor Vetro recently worked with is Timothée Chalamet as an enigmatic 19-year-old Bob Dylan moving from Minnesota to NYC’s West Village at the top of the 1960s in “A Complete Unknown.”
Chalamet sought out Vetro again after the pair collaborated on 2023’s “Wonka,” a titular role (“and a much different voice than Dylan’s”) that found the actor getting a Golden Globe nomination for best actor in a musical or comedy.
“Timmy’s like a unicorn,” says Vetro of the young actor, 28, whose focus for “A Complete Unknown” is an even younger Dylan who sounded nothing like the exaggerated nasal caricature so often imitated.
“I think that people forget how layered and nuanced Dylan’s voice is, and how much different he sounded in his youth – the single time period specific to ‘A Complete Unknown,’” Vetro says.
Timothée Chalamet and Eric Vetro
Courtesy Eric Vetro
Spending time watching vintage interviews and live gig videos, Chalamet and Vetro arrived at a voice that never imitates Dylan, but rather embodies his essence. “It’s easier to be an impersonator, but that never does justice to these icons’ artistry,” says Vetro. “Besides, when Dylan started, I’m pretty sure that people didn’t go to see him in order to hear his voice. They went to hear those lyrics that were so powerful – songs that had resonance to people in turmoil and youth embroiled in politics. His music articulated what so many people were feeling.”
Along with working with Chalamet on capturing Dylan, the energy of his voice and the manner in which he pronounced his words, Vetro also coached actress Monica Barbaro through her portrayal of Joan Baez.
“Joan was known for her high soprano at that time, but there was much more to her: the dynamic changes she made from her start, from soft and vulnerable to raw, strong and powerful,” notes the vocal instructor.
“Did Baez sound as strong as she did because she was singing out about the world’s injustices? Because she was a woman and had to assert herself in a male dominated world or felt passionately about the causes at the center of her songs? That’s what Monica and I asked ourselves. Let’s question those things and figure it out – that’s what makes it authentic. Audiences can feel that. Even if you don’t sound exactly like the person you’re playing, if you capture the essence, you’re there.”
Vetro says the “tall, muscular Hugh Jackman” didn’t look or sound like “scrawny” Peter Allen with his “light pop voice, dancing freely on stage.” Jackman, however, captured Allen’s childlike quality and exuberance throughout the Broadway run of “The Boy from Oz.”
“When you’re young, you’re usually a shallow breather – you’re just getting started you’re nervous, and that shows,” says Vetro. “With age and confidence, your breath grows stronger.”
Jeremy Allen White’s capture of Springsteen for “Deliver Me from Nowhere,” finds a Bruce in transition, artistically and personally, while recording the quiet, brooding songs of “Nebraska” at the end of 1981 into early 1982.
Jeremy Allen White and vocal coach Eric Vetro
Courtesy Eric Vetro
“These are slower, sadder, softer ballads of Springsteen, not the bravura of what people usually think of when they think of the bigger, rocking Bruce,” says Vetro. “There are some rousing numbers live on stage that Jeremy captures equally well in the film, and all of his transformations are exciting to watch.”
With Angelina Jolie’s dramatic take on legendary opera diva Maria Callas, the actress portrayed the grand soprano from her aesthetic heights of the 1940s to the early 1950s, as well as the vulnerability of her vocal decline in the mid-50s.
For “Maria,” Vetro assembled, for the first time, a team of three opera singers behind him who, together, worked with Jolie for seven months. “I can sing, but I can’t sing like Maria Callas,” he says, laughing. “Plus, my Italian pronunciation isn’t up to snuff.”
Vetro is in awe of how compelling Jolie is throughout “Maria,” how the actor embodies every nuance and every note of the opera legend.
“Jolie is indeed singing operatically as Callas, the caveat being you’re hearing a mix of Maria Callas’ voice with Jolie’s blended together,” he says of a mash-up vocal process that also took place on “Elvis” between Austin Butler and Elvis Presley.
“Sometimes there’s less Angelina, maybe 10%, other times there’s more Angelina. It changes depending on the aria and on the period as much of the movie focuses on the time when Callas couldn’t sing any longer, or sing in the same way. No matter what or when, Angelina captured every single note and every single emotion. She was astonishing.”
Vocal coach Eric Vetro (right) with ‘Maria’ director Pablo Larraín and Angelina Jolie
Courtesy Eric Vetro
One thing most impressive about having Jolie blend her voice with that of Maria Callas is that the actress had to emulate what the diva did on stage, originally, for the sake of splicing together their performances. In opera, however – unlike, say, pop – there is no steady beat or click track. “Opera has its own ebb and flow, its rubato,” says Vetro. “How in the world would Angelina be able to do that? But watching her sing… Jolie nailed it.”
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Why NYU- and Julliard-trained baritone Vetro isn’t himself crooning on Broadway or singing his way to the top of Billboard’s charts is simple. It’s not for him.
“I am, and will be, eternally grateful that I knew from an early age that teaching is what I wanted to do,” he says of his start in third grade, taking fellow students through the paces of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and playing piano for school musicals. “I was taking voice lessons and teaching everyone what I was learning… using these new techniques on them. From the very beginning I helped whoever asked me.”
Vetro thought of his voice, piano and music teachers as magical. Somewhere in his subconscious, he wanted to do the same thing. “Later when I got paid to play piano for the school choir or when kids started paying me to teach them, that was a shock. I kept hearing Wwho can I make this check out to?’ Check for what?”
As for his own performance resume, Vetro laughs about singing in off-off-Broadway shows such as “If This Be Madness” and working with the Light Opera Company of Manhattan doing Gilbert and Sullivan, and realizing he didn’t want a life on the stage. “I could remember the songs, but forgot all my lines. That soured me. From that point forward, I just wanted to help people through their journey, their progress.”
Leaving NYC for L.A. in 1980, Vetro went on the road playing piano for cabaret singer Samantha Samuels. As they won an extended opening slot for comedian Joan Rivers, Vetro made additional contacts and fell in love with show business. “Six months in Los Angeles and the music and film business turned to six years, and I never left.”
Reveling in the idea of helping other singers and actors live out their journey and find their own voices – as well as the voices of other icons when it comes to biopics and real-life stage musicals – is what Vetro fell in love and stayed in love with.
“All of these people – Ariana, Angelina, Timothée, Jeremy – have in common their amazing drive, and their passion to do what they do right,” says Vetro with emphasis. “I just know it. I can recognize it the second I see it. I swear to God and no one believes me, before I even heard her sing a note, I could tell that Ariana Grande was going to be a huge pop superstar. I just knew it. Her energy, the way she laughed and talked… and when she finally opened her mouth to sing it was a joke how amazing she was. I can’t believe that I get to be around such talent.”
So fortunate does Eric Vetro find his fates that, even if pushed, he could never write a gossipy tell-all. “I’d have to write a tell-a-little,” he laughs, “There would never be anything bad to say. Everyone with whom I have worked, honestly, has been gracious and possessed of enormous talent. From the first song you hear of Ariana in ‘Wicked’ and Timothée in ‘A Complete Unknown,’ you’ll know what I’m talking about.”