John Holloway (musician)

John Holloway ( born July 19, 1948) is a British violinist and conductor.

Life and work

John Holloway studied in London at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After initial engagements, among others, at the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the English Chamber Orchestra, he was in the 1970s, managers and concert master of the Kent Opera Orchestra. After an encounter with Sigiswald Kuijken in 1972, he began parallel to the modern violin with the game of baroque violin, which he henceforth devoted himself increasingly. Holloway is now considered one of the renowned violinist, teacher and conductor in the field of historical performance practice.

In addition to recordings of L' Estro Armonico and Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi, he first played the entire chamber music by George Frideric Handel on period instruments, one with which he had founded in the same year ensemble L' école d' Orphée. His CD recording of the Rosary Sonatas by Biber was awarded the German Record Critics.

In 1970 he was concertmaster of the London Classical Players and the Taverner Players, today he plays with all major Baroque orchestras in the world and is in demand as a musicologist and lecturer. In 1999 he received a teaching position at the University of Music Carl Maria von Weber Dresden.

Between 2003 and 2005, Holloway was the musical director of the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra. In 2005 he founded the Belgian conductor and harpsichordist Florian Heyerick and a music agent, the Mannheim court orchestra, which was heard in the summer of 2007 for the first time after 300 years in its original cast of 40 musicians. Since 2006 he has been artistic director of the International competition and master class violin in Dresden.