Holli Harrison’s ‘stunning vocal beauty’ and ‘huge range, resilience and power’ have heralded her as one of America’s most promising Young Dramatic Sopranos.
A native of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Harrison is a Grand Prize Winner of the 2006 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Highlights this season include Berta in the Metropolitan Opera’s holiday presentation of The Barber of Seville, Mozart Mass in C Minor with the Savannah Philharmonic and returning to the Metropolitan Opera in the spring to participate in a new production of Strauss’ Elektra.
Ms Harrison made her debut on The Metropolitan Opera stage in the role of Berta in Bartlett Sher’s critically acclaimed production of The Barber of Seville in 2013. She returned in the fall of 2014 to sing Aksinya in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk which was voted as one of the top classical performances of 2014. Other significant roles include Marianna in Das Liebesverbot, Boule de Suif in The Greater Good World Premiere, both with Glimmerglass Opera, and her role debut in Don Giovanni at Fort Worth Opera where the press described her Donna Elvira as possessing “a gratifyingly strong and consistent soprano that sustained full power in the low register. Harrison’s Elvira was a pretty tough lady, in both her vocal heft and her regal bearing.” – Opera News
Having began her career as a Young Artist with Pittsburgh Opera, Harrison joined the artist roster of the Metropolitan Opera in 2007 participating in productions such as Robert LePage’s new Ring Cycle as Helmwige in Die Walküre and Dritte Norn in Götterdämmerung. Other contributions include Fünfte in Magd Elektra, Erste Damme in Die Zauberflöte and Ortlinde in Die Walküre directed by Otto Shenk.
An experienced concert performer, Ms Harrison has sung with some of America’s leading orchestras and ensembles. Noteworthy performances include Mendelssohn’s Logbesang with the Seattle Symphony, Santuzza Cavalleria Rusticana with the Campanile Orchestra, Schubert’s Mass in A flat minor with the St Luke’s Chamber Ensemble and Mozart’s Requiem with the Houston Chamber Choir.
Beginning her formal training at Middle Tennessee State University and Rice University, she went on to develop her skills as an alumnus of Pittsburgh Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Aspen Opera Theater, Chautauqua Institute of Music and Music Academy of the West. Alongside her success in the National Council Auditions, her other prizes include awards in the Wagner Division of both the 2010 Gerda Lissner Foundation and the Liederkranz competition in 2009. She was also the winner of the Opera Index Vocal Competition, the National Orpheus Competition, the Grace Moore Competition for Singers and was an R. F. Gold Career Grant recipient from the Shoshana Foundation.
