
expertly sung... - Seattle Times
...excellent acting and singing - City Arts Online
lovely soprano... - Quad City Times
...crowd-pleasing - Midland Daily News
Holly
Boaz
soprano
Photo credit: Karson Brown

Soprano Holly Boaz is praised by critics for her “lovely soprano” (Quad City Times), “well-defined” characterizations (Saginaw News), and “crowd-pleasing” performances (Midland Daily News). Seattle Gay News had this to say about her performance in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with Pacific MusicWorks and GRAMMY award winning conductor, Stephen Stubbs:"Soprano Holly Boaz sang the pivotal role of Belinda, Dido's lady in waiting, with a lilting soprano and a vivid stage presence that urged the shy prince to 'pursue thy conquest love.' When it came time to switch sides in the second scene and become a witch, Boaz cackled gleefully over Dido's fate with equal commitment and effectiveness. " She was lauded by CityArts Online for “excellent acting and singing” and by the Seattle Times for her “expertly sung” performance as First Lady (Erste Dame) in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.
Ms. Boaz enjoys a varied career in opera, oratorio, chamber and choral music. Recent performances include a return to Seattle Opera for the Baroque trilogy The Combat, Lieder with the Vashon Chamber Music Concert Series, Handel’s Messiah with the Vashon Island Chorale, engagements with the Emerald Ensemble, Canonici, Les Chanterelles, and Regency Voices, Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Maestro Stephen Stubbs and Pacific Musicworks, and Erste Dame (First Lady) in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte with Pacific Musicworks and Vashon Opera.
Career highlights include solo debuts with the Seattle Symphony in Mozart’s Requiem and with Tacoma Opera as Eurydice in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, a solo recital for the 60th Aldeburgh Festival in England, her Canadian debut with the Vancouver Early Music Festival in Handel's Israel and Egypt in 2013, and a tour of Cambridgeshire and Canterbury with Caritas Chamber Choir in the UK.
Operatic roles include Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare), Despina (Così fan tutte), Donnas Anna and Elvira (Don Giovanni), Konstanze (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Susanna and the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro), La Contessa di Folleville (Il viaggio a Rheims), Berta (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), The Governess (Turn of the Screw), Female Chorus (The Rape of Lucretia), and both Aninku and The Sparrow in Krasá’s Brundibár (she can be heard as The Sparrow on the Naxos label). She has also appeared on the stages of Connecticut Opera, Tacoma Opera, Aspen Music Festival, Seattle Opera Young Artists Program, Quad Cities Opera, Music Academy of the West, and Vashon Opera, to name a few.
She is the 2010 Winner of both the Western Washington District and the Northwest Region of the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Award Competition. Ms. Boaz is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin School of Music, where she was the recipient of a Hilldale Undergraduate Fellowship. She holds an M.M. from The Hartt School, where she was the recipient of the Berkowitz Opera Scholarship and worked as a Teaching Assistant in the voice department. She won fellowships to study and perform at the Aspen Music Festival and at the Music Academy of the West, and is a graduate of the Seattle Opera Young Artists Program. She pursued further specialized studies in Russian song at the Britten-Pears Programme in England, and in the music of the early baroque with Stephen Stubbs and Nancy Zylstra at the Accademia d’amore in Seattle, and on full scholarship at the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin College. She counts among her mentors and teachers such illustrious performers and pedagogues as Jane Eaglen, Vinson Cole, Carol Vaness, Marilyn Horne, Mark Oswald, and Peter Kazaras. She currently serves as adjunct faculty in the music departments of Pacific Lutheran University and Tacoma Community College in Tacoma, Washington, and maintains a private studio in Tacoma and Vashon Island. She is the District Governor of Western Washingon for NATS (The National Association of Teachers of Singing), and she is also a yoga teacher, leading workshops for singers at universities and training programs.

Schedule
March 22, 2020
Shostakovich Op.127
Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok
December 20, 2019
Handel's Messiah
April 22, 2019
8 Hungarian Folk Songs
November 15, 2018
Ancient Tapestries
Tacoma Community College
October 13, 2018
Hard Times Come Again No More:
Social Justice Through Song
College Music Society National Conference
Vancouver, B.C.
September 29, 2018
Sing it Trippingly
Presented by Tacoma Early Music
St. Luke's Memorial Episcopal Church
July 1-15, 2018
Class: Yoga for Singers
Pacific Lutheran University Summer Opera Workshop
June 9, 2018
Sing it Trippingly
May 18 & 20, 2018
Mozart's The Magic Flute (First Lady)
April 7, 2018
Purcell's The Fairy Queen
Vashon Maury Chamber Orchestra
March 4, 2018
J.S. Bach's B Minor Mass
October 14, 2017
Donald Skirvin's Curve of Gold
Seattle Choral Consortium Festival
October 7, 2017
Talk: Om Your Way to Vagal Tone:
Yoga Practices to Ease Performance Anxiety
Mary Baker Russel Music Center
Pacific Lutheran University
September 9, 2017
The Two Elizabeths
September 1, 2017
Live Radio Performance on NW Focus Live
August 26, 2017
Merthe and Melodye
Medieval a cappella music for 3 voices with Les Chanterelles
Tacoma Early Music Workshop
Schubert's Der Hirt auf dem Felsen
Vashon United Methodist Church
Donald Skirvin's Curve of Gold
Bastyr Chapel, Kenmore, WA
May 18, 2017
Workshop: Yoga for Singers
Central Washington University
April 30, 2017
Dido and Aeneas (Belinda/Second Witch)
Meany Hall at the University of Washington
April 29, 2017
Dido and Aeneas (Belinda/Second Witch)
Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall
April 9, 2017
The Combat (Soprano 2)
March 11, 2017
Early Songs Lovely, Lusty and Lewd
Regency Voices
Lagerquist Concert Hall at Pacific Lutheran University
February 25, 2017
Serenade to Music: English Choral Masterworks
Trinity Parish Church, Seattle, WA
February 10, 2017
Serenade to Music: English Choral Masterworks
Katherine L. White Hall at Vashon Center for the Arts
Katherine L. White Hall at Vashon Center for the Arts
Vashon Chamber Music
February 27, 28, 2016
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony
Numerica Performing Arts Center, Wenatchee, WA
Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra
May 8, 9, 10, 2015
Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (Erste Dame)
Meany Hall at the University of Washington

Photo credit: Alan Alabastro



Photo credit: Alan Alabastro

Photo credit: Alan Alabastro

Photo credit: Alan Alabastro

Photo credit: Peter Serko






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