David Holley

Biography

David Holley has been the Director of Opera at UNCG since 1992 and is the General and Artistic Director of Greensboro Opera.  In 2009, he produced, directed and wrote the libretto for the world premiere of Picnic, an opera by prominent American composer Libby Larsen, commissioned by the UNCG School of Music.  Under his leadership, the UNCG Opera Theatre productions have consistently won awards in the American Prize Competition, as well as the National Opera Association’s annual Opera Production Competition, in which UNCG has won seven first place and five second place NOA awards.  His professional directing/producing credits include Greensboro Opera mainstage productions of Don Giovanni, La Fille du Régiment, Carmen, La Cenerentola, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Madama Butterfly, Hansel and Gretel, Amahl and the Night Visitors, Pagliacci, and La bohème as well as Il Trovatore for Opera Roanoke.  In 2022, he produced Greensboro Opera’s sold-out production of Porgy and Bess at the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts.  Mr. Holley conceives and directs the annual Eastern Music Festival/Greensboro Opera collaboration.  He has appeared throughout the US and Canada in a diversity of leading lyric tenor roles including Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Don José in Carmen, Tamino in The Magic Flute and the title roles in The Tales of Hoffmann and Roméo and Juliette.