Katrina Holden
Soprano
Katrina Holden blends a silvery lyric voice with a love of words that permeates her performances. Described as a "dramatic" performer with a "strong voice", (The Boston Theater Review), she performs extensively throughout the Boston area in opera and in concert throughout the country.
Of her company debut as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier with Connecticut Lyric Opera, The Day in New London lauded; "... as Sophie, Holden was perfectly cast, teenage-fresh in both character and voice, making the most of the ringing top to ensembles given to her role. This is a singer who will be welcomed should she return to the CLO stage."
Other operatic stage highlights include Musetta in La Bohème, the title role in Massenet's Cendrillon, Beth in Mark Adamo's Little Women, Countess Charlotte in A Little Night Music, and Frasquita in Carmen. Katrina has performed on the stages of Boston Lyric Opera, Odyssey Opera, Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra at Sanders Theater, MassOpera, Boston Opera Collaborative, NEMPAC Opera Project and Opera del West.
Katrina has a special love for German lieder and has sung numerous German-focused recitals. In Boston alone, she has performed concert work at The Museum of Fine Arts, The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Christopher Columbus Park, and the Bijou de la Vida Gallery. She has even been a frequent performer in less conventional venues, as a longtime member of Opera on Tap’s Boston Chapter. From the back of a pick-up truck, she brought hope and cheer to the streets of Boston mid-pandemic in a moving concert, (pun intended), sponsored by MassOpera. She toured Austria as Erste Dame in a concert version of Die Zauberflöte with the AIMS Festival Orchestra under the baton of Edoardo Müller and on a concert tour in Indiana as a soloist in early music recitals featuring the work of John Dowland with the group "Night's Blackbird".
Katrina recently performed the soprano solos of Beethoven's Mass in C Major alongside her husband, tenor soloist Brendan P. Buckley with the Dedham Choral Society's Bravo Beethoven! Concert; a birthday celebration postponed two years due to the pandemic. Oratorio highlights include solos in Handel's Messiah, Beethoven's Choral Fantasy, Forrest's Requiem for the Living, among others.
Katrina was selected as a Finalist in the "Talents of the World" Competition in Greater Boston in 2018 and in 2012, she was a Finalist in the Jenny Lind Competition in Bridgeport, CT.
As a passionate advocate of the Boston arts scene for over 15 years, Katrina is also known for her critical commentary and music industry writing perspectives. She has been published in The Theatre Times, The Arts Fuse, Classical Singer Magazine, and Boston Singers’ Resource.
Born in Woodbridge CT, Katrina graduated with her Masters of Music degree in Vocal Performance from The New England Conservatory in Boston where she studied with James McDonald. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Music and English from Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, where she was the recipient of the “Dorothy and Dexter Baker Foundation Award in the Performing Arts” and won first place in the “Class of 1969 Recital Competition”. Ms Holden currently studies with Elisabeth Phinney.
