Opera singer David Holloway is an example of how a few instrumental people can impact a person’s life.
Holloway, 71, is a renowned baritone who has graced the stages of the world’s finest opera houses and theaters.
Next Saturday Holloway will be one of several performers in a program to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.
“It’ll be fun to be part of such a large cast to celebrate the Bowlus,” he said. “I understand there’s only enough time for me to sing one number. That’s OK. I don’t practice much anymore.”
After 30 years of playing lead roles, Holloway’s humility is endearing.
Today, he is director of an apprentice singers program at the Santa Fe Opera, a position he’s held for the last 10 years.
“At this point in my life, I go from year to year in regards to commitments,” he said.
Every fall, Holloway sits in on more than 1,000 auditions in several major U.S. cities for the 40 spots in the apprentice program.
“I get to work with the top young singers in the nation,” Holloway said of the interns who sing smaller roles and in the chorus for the opera’s seasonal productions as well as train for the lead roles.
“Last year, one female apprentice filled in on opening night and three subsequent performances,” he said.
Holloway regards his present position, “as the best job in opera.”
Of course, he speaks from having reached the pinnacle of his profession.
IT ALL BEGAN in the humble trappings of Gas.
The son of the late Elta May and Milton Holloway, David began taking piano lessons at age 5.
“I never thought I would quit, though sometimes it was drudgery,” he said. “By high school I was hooked. I loved the piano and my teacher, Mrs. Gard.”
The admiration went both ways. Mrs. Gard was so taken with young David that she occasionally took him to Kansas City to hear professional performances.
“She believed in me,” he said. “She urged me to study music and to go to the University of Kansas.”
After he graduated from Iola High School in 1960, David did go to KU, but with no clear plan.
“I was studying piano, voice, music education. I didn’t really know what path I should follow,” he said. When he landed a small role in a school musical, the orchestra director Robert Baustian quickly took hold of the young freshman and urged him to concentrate on voice.
“He was instrumental in helping direct my future,” Holloway said.
Holloway followed his bachelor’s degree in music with a master’s and took “straight on” with the KU faculty to teach voice.
“But I knew I wanted to sing professionally,” he said.
After three years on staff Holloway headed for the big time in 1969. After only three auditions in New York City he was hired by the San Francisco Western Opera.
“They took me sight unseen,” Holloway said, adding that the NYC opera scene is a feeder for opera companies all over the country.
Holloway spent the bulk of his career in New York City with its City Opera and Metropolitan Opera, as well as an opera company in Germany.
For the 30 years Holloway played leading roles. He was the Barber Figaro in the “Barber of Venice,” Giovanni in “Don Giovanni,” Caesar in “Julius Caesar,” and Papa Germont in “La Traviata,” among other leading roles.
One favorite leading lady is the late Beverly Sills.
After performing professionally, Holloway returned to teaching, joining the voice faculty at the Chicago College of Performing Arts where he remained until he accepted the position in Sante Fe in 2004.
PURSUING the arts has the reputation of being especially challenging. Think starving artist.
“That’s true,” he said. “But on the flip side, artists have the privilege of being able to really follow their passion. I really needed and wanted to be an opera singer. I would not be denied.”
That passion took Holloway and his young family around the world.
Holloway has five children, four sons and a daughter. He and his wife, Deborah, now married 40 years, have four children and he has a son by a previous marriage.
“It takes a special spouse to accommodate an artist,” Holloway said. “All the travel can be hard on families.”
Holloway recalls the family traveling with one suitcase packed with kitchen utensils.
“We’d cook on hot plates in our hotel rooms. It always felt like we were on a picnic.”
When the eldest became of school age the family settled in Dusseldorf, Germany for 10 years where Holloway was the leading baritone at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein.
