Rosenberg resident debuts a new opera
John Holiday hopes the success of his first year as a professional opera singer will inspire others with the confidence he got from his mother and grandmother.
“They taught me the sky wasn’t the limit, to shoot for the stars,” said the Rosenberg resident, who was head choral director at Lamar Junior High School from August 2008 to December 2009.
This year, from Charleston, South Carolina, where he debuts a new opera through May 31, Holiday sent Mother’s Day greetings to his mother, Waverly Holiday of Rosenberg, and her mother, Sandra Mathis Franklin of Richmond.
“My grandmother (Franklin) taught me, ‘Nothing beats a failure but a try,’” said the countertenor, now 30, who started singing in the third-grade choir at Travis Elementary.
“I never felt that Rosenberg was small,” he said. “Statistically, it is a small city, but I saw so much of the world traveling with the Fort Bend Boys Choir of Texas that I felt like I was bringing all of those experiences back with me.”
He spent Sundays in Houston at Calvary Way Missionary Baptist Church, where Franklin played the piano and directed the choir.
“I call her Bigmama,” said Holiday, “and nothing beats seeing her play” the piano.
“Church, for me, was exciting as a kid,” he added. “They made me from a young age feel special.
“Even now, sometimes I get nervous before I sing, and Bigmama tells me, ‘I don’t understand that. You can do anything. You can do everything.’”
Holiday graduated in 2003 as a top student at Lamar Consolidated High School, then earned a bachelor of music degree in vocal performance in 2007 from Southern Methodist University.
He taught for a year in Rosenberg, then completed his master’s degree at The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in May 2012, followed by an artist diploma in opera studies at The Juilliard School last May.
The past year has been “a whirlwind,” he said.
On May 29, 2014, he moved back to Rosenberg, then debuted three days later in the title role of Handel’s “Giulio Cesare” at Wolf Trap Opera in Vienna, Virginia.
In August, he placed third in Plácido Domingo’s “Operalia: The World Competition,” in Los Angeles, and stayed to seduce audiences and critics alike as the Sorceress in Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas.”
In December, Holiday’s high voice enabled him to sing the alto solos in “The Messiah” with the Grammy Award-winning Saint Paul (Minnesota) Chamber Orchestra.
“I’ve always had a high voice,” he said. “Sometimes I was antagonized by people and taunted, made fun of. I wouldn’t give anything for it now, and it helped build my character.”
In Dallas, Holiday cocreated and co-produced his own show, called “The Holiday Experience,” at Christmastime.
On Valentine’s Day this year, Holiday was the soloist in a concert, “Love Letters,” with Ars Lyrica Houston, which will also be the venue for Holiday’s next scheduled appearance in Houston, this fall when Ars Lyrica releases its CD recording of “La Sposa Dei Cantici.”
Meanwhile, Holiday is traveling with his cockapoo “dogter” (daughter), Grace, and is set to perform in New York; at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; and in Europe, at Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles in France.
Visit www.JohnHolidayLive.com for details. Don Maines is a freelance writer