Aprofessional singer whose musical roots can be traced to the Chattanooga Girls Choir has returned home this weekend as featured soloist with the choir during its Winter Concert on Sunday.
Holli Harrison, now an opera singer in New York City who free-lances gigs with symphonic associations across the country, was a founding member of the Girls Choir in 1987.
If You Go* What: Chattanooga Girls Choir Winter Concert* When: 2 p.m. Sunday* Where: Ridgedale Baptist Church, 1831 Hickory Valley Road* Admission: $12 adults, $8 ages 18 and under
“It’s strange to come back to something, but it’s been great to be around the girls again,” she said in a telephone interview.
“A couple of the parents now are girls I was in choir with,” she added. “I was talking with them at rehearsal about what it was like when we were touring.”
Harrison is the daughter of Sandra Harrison and Wayne Harrison of Trenton, Ga. After graduating from Red Bank High School and Middle Tennessee State University, she earned a master’s of vocal performance at Rice University.
She has numerous vocal competitions to her credit. She placed first in prestigious competitions such as the Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition, Grace Moore Foundation Competition, Orpheus International Competition and Opera Index Vocal Competition.
The dramatic soprano has performed on stages from the Metropolitan Opera House to Glimmerglass Opera Company, a summer program in Cooperstown, N.Y. Earlier this season she was booked in Fort Worth, Texas.
She named her favorite roles as Sieglinde in “Die Walkure” and Amelia in Verdi’s “A Masked Ball.”
With the Girls Choir this weekend, she will be the featured soloist on “Missa Brevis in C Minor,” according to Nicole Knauss, choir administrator.