Eugene B. Holmes (March 7, 1932 - January 19, 2007) was an American operatic

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

who sang with the

New York City Opera The New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through 2013 (when it filed for bankruptcy), and again since 2016 when it was revived. The opera company, du ...

, the

Metropolitan Opera National Company The Metropolitan Opera National Company (MONC) was a short lived American opera company that operated from 1965 to 1967 as a second touring company of the Metropolitan Opera that featured American and Canadian artists in their early stages of career ...

and the

Deutsche Oper am Rhein The Deutsche Oper am Rhein (German Opera on the Rhine) is an opera company based in Düsseldorf and Duisburg. The opera also has an associated classical ballet company. Axel Kober has been its Music Director since 2009. The resident orchestra, th ...

Early life and education

He was born March 7, 1934, in

Brownsville, Tennessee Brownsville is a city in and the county seat of Haywood County, Tennessee, Haywood County, Tennessee, United States, located in the western Its population as of the 2010 census was 10,292, with a decrease to 9,788 at the 2020 census. The city is n ...

, the eleventh of fourteen brothers and sisters. His father was a Baptist preacher and farmer/sharecropper. Eugene attended Cole elementary school and Washington Technical High school in St. Louis, and then Harris Stowe Teachers State College until his sophomore year, when he auditioned for the St. Louis Music Chore and won a full scholarship to

University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) is a public historically black university in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Founded in 1873, it is the second oldest public college or university in the state of Arkansas. UAPB is part of the University of ...

Career

After graduating, he returned to St. Louis where he worked as a social worker in the Pruitt-Igoe projects. Later he was certified as a teacher and taught elementary school, then high school for several years. He served in the Navy from 1956 to 1959 aboard on the USS ''Conflict''. During this time, he sang in the Navy Blue Jackets. Holmes went with a friend to a rehearsal of the American opera ''The Crucible''. There he met accompanist and director Dorothy Zeigler, who was also the first trombonist for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Dorothy introduced Holmes to Boris Goldovsky, who ran the opera workshop in Wheeling, West Virginia. Godofsky offered Holmes a leading role in his yearly opera workshop for young musicians. After the clinic, Holmes was offered a scholarship and attended

University of Indiana Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

in Bloomington. He began performing with the New York

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

National Touring Company soon after completing his graduate education. ''. Holmes was an

artist-in-residence Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...

Tougaloo College Tougaloo College is a private historically black college in the Tougaloo area of Jackson, Mississippi. It is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). It was originally established in 1869 by New Yo ...

in Mississippi and the Music Faculty at

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

. In 1970, Holmes performed with Plácido Domingo in ''Aida'' in the Vienna State Opera. Holmes sang with the New York City Opera, and in 1971 he played the lead role of Ukamba written for him by

Gian Carlo Menotti Gian Carlo Menotti (, ; July 7, 1911 – February 1, 2007) was an Italian composer, librettist, director, and playwright who is primarily known for his output of 25 operas. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept h ...

, in the world premier of ''

The Most Important Man ''The Most Important Man'' is an opera in three acts with music and libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti. Commissioned by Julius Rudel for the New York City Opera, the work premiered at Lincoln Center in 1971 in a production directed by Menotti with se ...

''. His singing attracted acclaim from critics, including Alan Rush of ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

'' magazine in 1971, and when he sang under permanent contract with the German Opera on the Rheine, ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine reported his singing as "supurb". Dieter Bross of ''Style Magazine'', Germany, in 1981 declared him to be the best black baritone at that time. Holmes was also in demand as a concert singer. In March 1990, Holmes was awarded the title

Kammersänger Kammersänger (male) or Kammersängerin (female), abbreviated Ks. or KS, is a German honorific title for distinguished singers of opera and classical music. It literally means "chamber singer". Historically, the title was bestowed by princes or ...

at the

.Wilson, Jerry.(2009-02-24). "Black History Month: From Dancyville to Dusseldorf, Germany / The road traveled by Eugene Holmes". ''Brownsville States Graphic'' Retrieved from StatesGraphic.com February 18, 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holmes, Eugene 1932 births 2007 deaths American operatic baritones University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff alumni University of Indianapolis alumni 20th-century American male opera singers People from Brownsville, Tennessee Singers from Tennessee Classical musicians from Tennessee