John Holiday

Early life and education

Holiday was born in Houston, Texas to John Holiday, Sr, a welder and Waverly A. Holiday a homemaker. In addition to being a high school English & Literature teacher, his maternal grandmother, Sandra Mathis Franklin, was also the minister of music at his church, which exposed him to music at a very early age. At the age of 2, he began to sing at church. This carried on into his childhood, and John was encouraged to audition for The Fort Bend Boys Choir of Texas (FBBC) under the direction of William R. Adams. He auditioned and was accepted into the FBBC in the second grade. As a member of this choir, he toured the U.S.A and many countries abroad. It was in this choir that he was exposed to opera singer Denyce Graves, who sang the role of Marguerite in Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust, while performing as one of the treble soloists in the Houston Symphony production in 1997. He credits this performance as the reason why he is an opera singer today.

John graduated from Lamar Consolidated High School in Rosenberg, Texas. While in high school, he was the first chair tenor in the TMEA All-State Mixed Choir for two years and also held the designation as one of the Most Outstanding Performers in Texas according to U.I.L.. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Music Degree in Vocal Performance in 2007 from Southern Methodist University, which he attended on scholarships provided by the university from 2003-2007. While a student at SMU, he frequently won first place at the TEXOMA region of the National Association of Teachers of Singing competition as a student of Barbara Hill-Moore. While at SMU, he did not perform any major operatic roles because early music was rarely done at the university; however, he did sing the role of Gherardino in the school's production of Gianni Schicchi in 2005. While at SMU, in 2004, he became a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity through the Kappa Tau chapter at Southern Methodist University. In 2006, John opened for Jason Mraz at McFarlin Auditorium in Dallas, Texas. In addition to that, he won the Meadows School of the Arts Concerto Competition in 2007. After graduating, he studied voice with Marietta Simpson at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music from 2007-2008 on a full scholarship. Choosing not to complete his degree, John left Bloomington and returned home to Rosenberg to teach Choral Music and Voice at Lamar Junior High School and Lamar Consolidated High School, from August 2008 - December 2009.

After much thought and urging from his patrons Lee and Jan Leaman, he auditioned for and got into the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music graduate program. There, he studied with Karen Lykes and earned a master's degree in Vocal Performance in 2012. While at CCM, he performed the role of Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare in Egitto under conductor Mark Gibson. During this time, John auditioned for and was accepted to the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice program for singers to cover the role of Corrado in the Peter Sellars production of Griselda. At Santa Fe Opera in 2011, John met Marlena Malas and Diane Richardson, with whom he’d later study at The Juilliard School, and decided to audition for the Artist Diploma in Opera Studies (formerly Juilliard Opera Center). Attending on full scholarship, John enrolled at Juilliard - studying with Marlena and Stephen Wadsworth and earning his Artist Diploma in Opera Studies in 2014.

Career

As an apprentice singer at the Santa Fe Opera in 2011, John received a great deal of exposure. From there, he was asked to make his debut at Portland Opera in the role of 1st Oracle and 1st Cardinal in Kevin Newbury's 2012 production of Galileo Galilei by Philip Glass under the baton of maestra Anne Manson. He would go on to reprise these roles, to great acclaim, in his 2013 debut at the Cincinnati Opera under the direction of Ted Huffman. In the spring of 2013, making his roster debut at the Metropolitan Opera, he went on to cover the role of Nireno under the baton of Harry Bicket. In that same year, he took on the title role in the James Darrah production of Radamisto at Juilliard. Subsequently, he went on to Wolf Trap Opera as a Filene Young Artist to perform the title role in Giulio Cesare in Egitto. He is a rising star in the realm of baroque opera and modern works. In 2014, John made his Los Angeles Opera debut in the Barrie Kosky production of Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell as the Sorceress In 2015, he originated the role of Male Soloist No. 1 in the world premiere of Huang Ruo's Paradise Interrupted at the Spoleto Festival USA, which subsequently debuted at the Lincoln Center Festival in 2016. In addition, he made his house debut and role debut as Giulio Cesare in Tazewell Thompson's 2015 production of Antonio Vivaldi's Catone in Utica at the Glimmerglass Festival and will return to sing the title role in George Handel's Serse in the summer of 2017

Personal life

On February 4, 2013, John married his husband, Paul Gater, in a small ceremony in New York City. They reside in Fort Bend County, Texas with their dog. He is represented by Columbia Artists Management.