John Holland-Avery from Staines, Middlesex is a BA (Hons) in Music from York University and is a former Bass Lay Clerk of St John’s College, Cambridge, with whom he toured a lot of Europe. In 2016 he completed an MMus in Vocal Performance at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, during which time he won the 2015 Frederic Cox Song Prize (RNCM) and sang live on BBC Radio 3. His studies were generously supported by the Mercers’ Company and an Independent Opera Voice Scholarship.
John has a number of professional operatic credits to his name, with highlights including Governor in Bart’s Oliver! (Grange Park Opera), Guglielmo in Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte (Woodhouse Opera), Don Alfonso from the same opera (Devon Opera), Periarco in Cavalli’s Xerse (UK premiere), Giove in Cavalli’s La Calisto, Melisso in Handel’s Alcina, Ali in Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes (Ensemble OrQuesta), Step-Out Baritone (cover) in Noah Mosley’s Aurora (Bury Court Opera), Alidoro (cover) in Rossini’s La Cenerentola (British Youth Opera), Dr Falke in J. Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus (Windsor & Eton Opera), Harasta in Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen (Riverside Opera, London), and Hipparco in Cavalli’s L’Egisto (Hampstead Garden Opera). John recently started a year out from the opera stage in order to focus on online lessons from internationally-acclaimed Welsh baritone David Kempster.
John also has a busy concert schedule. He is a founding member of Eboracum Baroque, with whom he recorded Handel’s Messiah (released in 2021). Future work includes Copland’s American Folk Songs (The Apex, Bury St Edmunds) and Vaughan Williams’s Dona nobs pacem (Münster, Germany).
John is also a passionate singing teacher, giving private singing lessons for the American Community School (Egham) and Windsor Piano School (Windsor). In 2020 he started his YouTube Kids channel, Mr Holland-Avery’s Singing Lessons.