John Holiday is a distinctive and versatile artist, praised as “one of the finest countertenors of his generation” (Los Angeles Times) and for singing that is “arrestingly powerful, secure and dramatically high” (The Wall Street Journal). He moves fluidly between Baroque repertoire, contemporary opera and American song with technical assurance, stylistic authority and remarkable storytelling ability, bringing to the stage what one critic described as “a natural stage presence with a gloriously rich and pure sound.” His artistry and personal story have been the subject of major national profiles, including CNN’s Great Big Story, the Los Angeles Times, and NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series.
Equally at home on the opera and concert stage, Holiday has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras, opera companies and festivals, at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Royal Albert Hall, the Barbican Centre and the Philharmonie de Paris. He has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta and The English Concert, and at the BBC Proms.
On the opera stage he is associated above all with the title role of Philip Glass’s Akhnaten, which he has sung at Komische Oper Berlin in Barrie Kosky’s production and at LA Opera. His work in new opera has placed him at the centre of some of the form’s most significant recent premieres: he created roles in the world premieres of Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice at LA Opera, Daniel Bernard Roumain’s We Shall Not Be Moved with Opera Philadelphia and Dutch National Opera — later staged in a production directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones — and Caroline Shaw and Jocelyn Clarke’s Four Portraits at Lyric Opera of Chicago, and he appeared in the stage premiere of Kevin Puts’s The Hours at the Metropolitan Opera. His Handel is no less central, encompassing Tolomeo and the title role in Giulio Cesare, Ruggiero in Alcina, Nerone in Agrippina and the title role in Xerxes. He has been heard at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Dutch National Opera, Washington National Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Arizona Opera and the Glimmerglass Festival, among others.
A dedicated recitalist, Holiday has curated The John Holiday Experience, an eclectic programme spanning classical, pop, jazz and R&B that he has presented internationally, and he has devised concerts drawing on the Great American Songbook. He has opened for GRAMMY® Award winner Jason Mraz, sung the national anthem for the Houston Rockets, appeared at the Ozwald Boateng Harlem runway show at the Apollo Theater and performed Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” at the Apollo Theater Spring Gala. He is also the subject of the film After/Glow.
Holiday is the recipient of numerous major awards, including the 2017 Marian Anderson Vocal Award, the Richard Tucker Foundation’s 2014 Sara Tucker Award, first prize at the 2013 Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, and top honours from the 2012 Sullivan Foundation and the 2011 Dallas Opera Guild. He was selected among WQXR’s 20 for ’20 Artists to Watch, named one of BroadwayWorld‘s “New York Opera Gifts that Keep on Giving”, nominated as Newcomer of the Year by the German magazine Opernwelt, and listed among the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ 100 honorees for 2018.
John Holiday is Associate Professor of Voice at the University of Maryland School of Music. He holds a Bachelor of Music in vocal performance from Southern Methodist University, a Master of Music in vocal performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and an Artist Diploma in Opera Studies from The Juilliard School. He grew up in Rosenberg, Texas, near Houston, and attended the town’s public schools.
