By Janelle Gelfand
The Cincinnati Enquirer

If opera singer Heidi Grant Murphy had not won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions as a 22-year-old student at Indiana University, her life would have taken a much different turn.

IF YOU GO

What: Cincinnati May Festival. When: Friday: Mozart's Regina Coeli; Exsultate Jubilate and Requiem. Saturday: Mahler's Symphony No. 8, "Symphony of a Thousand, " both at 8 p.m. Where: Music Hall, 1241 Elm St., downtown. 381-3300 or www.mayfestival.com

"I thought that I would be a choral conductor at the local high school - they were saving a position for me," says Murphy. "I thought I'd do that and be a high school volleyball coach. But then I changed my plans - drastically!"

Murphy, 38, makes her May Festival debut this weekend singing Mozart and Mahler.

Since training with the Metropolitan Opera's Young Artist Development Program, she has sung on most of the world's great stages, released several recordings (her CDs of Latin love songs and Christmas songs come out on Koch later this year) and appeared on A&E's Breakfast with the Arts.

A champion of female composers - she tries to program one on each recital - her recording of Lili Boulanger's "Clearings in the Sky" (Arabesque Recordings) is enchanting. "I think women composers are becoming much more prevalent," says the soprano, who will sing the world premiere of "Gathering Paradise" by Augusta Read Thomas with the New York Philharmonic in September.

The minister's daughter grew up singing in church and school choirs in her hometown of Bellingham, Wash. It was then-boyfriend, now husband pianist Kevin Murphy, who encouraged her to try for the Met's contest. She was flabbergasted when she won.

Now she realizes that singing has made her what she is.

"It's funny, I look at my four children, and I realize that I am a certain kind of mother because I am a singer," says Murphy, who is bringing her two youngest, ages 18 months and 9 weeks, with her to Cincinnati. "(Singing) gives me confidence, it makes me happy, it fulfills me, all kinds of things. Now, I can't imagine not being a singer."

How does she balance it all?

"I try to get as much sleep as possible and I just don't stop from morning 'til night," she says.

E-mail jgelfand@enquirer.com