John Holiday @ Orchestra Hall

From Orfeo to the spirituals of his childhood and the jazz & gospel he loves today, John Holiday’s deeply expressive, richly beautiful voice has made him a progressively sought-after *countertenor. Critic Peter Jacobi of the Herald Times says Holiday “exhibits a vocal instrument that threatens to equal the world’s name artists in his range.” Since the age of two, Holiday, a Texas native, began to exhibit interests in gospel music - being mentored by his grandmother Sandra Mathis Franklin. Holiday also developed an interest in classical music in the third grade. During the summer of 2002, His Eminence Pope John Paul II invited Holiday to sing at the Vatican for High Mass at the Sistine Chapel with the Fort Bend Boys Choir of Texas. At age 15, Holiday began accompanying his grandmother on piano and singing at Calvary Way Missionary Baptist Church in Houston, where the pastor is Rev. B.E. Lewis. Southern Methodist University in Dallas awarded Holiday a full scholarship, and while still an undergraduate he toured to South Africa portraying Daddy Peter and Mingo in Porgy and Bess in 2004. In spring 2006, Holiday's jazz and pop combo opened for five-time Grammy Award nominee Jason Mraz, and he released his first full-length jazz Christmas CD, Holiday Guide. Holiday developed his own eclectic style influenced by Leontyne Price, Kim Burrell, Denyce Graves, Celine Dion, and Yolanda Adams, earning his Vocal Performance degree in 2007 from the Meadows School of the Arts. In 2007, John was a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Audition of the Mid - South Region - advancing as a semi finalist. This past New Year's Eve, Holiday took to the stage with Stellar Award and Grammy Nominee DeNetria Champ.