Biography
Christopher Holmes returned to his home Provo after obtaining degrees in opera at the Oberlin College Conservatory (B.M., M.M.), Temple University (M.M.), teaching voice at Texas State University, and performing throughout the States. With over 40 operatic roles to his credit, Christopher has been featured by companies such as Austin Opera, Central City Opera, Eugene Opera, Opera Idaho, Phoenix Opera, and San Antonio Opera.
As a full-lyric baritone, Holmes is beginning to make his mark in the Verdi repertoire. As Iago with Winter Opera St. Louis critics commented, Holmes sings Iago “with clarity and power, and with a skilled actor’s ability to convey mood and character” and with “control and subtlety.” As Rigoletto at St. Petersburg Opera a critic indicates that Holmes “had me crying at points– an incredibly beautiful lyric baritone with a very clear understanding of who this humiliated and terribly wronged man is.” His Germont was praised as “with crystal clear enunciation, truly polished, controlled, professional and superb,” and he sang Conte di Luna (Trovatore) at Opera in the Heights, and Renato (Un ballo in maschera) at Opera Project Columbus.
Over the pandemic Holmes was able to support virtual efforts of opera organizations through performances with Intermountain Opera Bozeman and Ohio Light Opera. Additionally he recorded the role of Anselmo in a new opera by William Call entitled El Curioso Impertinente and Michele in Il tabarro with Social Distance Opera/Barn Opera. Activities in 2022 included singing Marcello (Boheme) in the Noorda Center for the Performing Arts at Utah Valley University’s first inclusion of an opera in their professional concert/theater series, the baritone soloist in Dwight Bigler’s Mosaic for Earth performed by the choirs and orchestras at Virginia Tech, covering Scarpia at Utah Symphony & Opera's Tosca, presenting three baritone roles in the workshop of John Massaro's Italian opera Isabella, and soloing in Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem with Craig Jessop at Utah Valley University. More recently, performances with Jessop have included the baritone soloist in Vaughan Williams' Dona nobis pacem at the Cathedral of the Madeleine and the Hodie and Serenade to Music with his American Festival Chorus and Orchestra, followed by performances of Bach's St. John Passion as Pilate and bass soloist.
Projects over the summer of 2023 included the title role of Don Giovanni at Painted Sky Opera, and Escamillo at Western Plains Opera.
Previously he was seen as Barone Douphol at Utah Symphony & Opera, Conte Almaviva at Utah Festival Opera, Belcore at Opera Company of Middlebury, Rossini’s Bartolo at Western Plains Opera, and Escamillo at the Pine Mountain Music Festival.
Christopher developed a love for the Italian people and culture having lived in the central area of Italy for two years. Major influences on his teaching philosophy come from renowned author, pedagogue, and tenor Richard Miller with whom he studied at Oberlin, and Italian coach/conductor Nicolas Giusti with whom he works and collaborates frequently.
Mr. Holmes remains active as a concert artist having sung such works as Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Handel’s Messiah, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Fauré's Requiem, Mozart's Mass in C Minor and Requiem, Schubert’s Mass in G Major, and Verdi's Messa di Requiem.