Elizabeth Holland was born and educated in Birmingham. She studied for a BA(hons) in Music at Durham University, graduating in 1999, and in 2002 completed a PhD in Performance Studies at Sheffield University specialising in the vocal music of Henry Purcell. In the same year Elizabeth was a finalist in the Musica Britannica Sir Anthony Lewis Competition for Singers, and was awarded a First Prize and ‘Most Promising Young Female Singer’ in the David Clover Competition for Singers. Elizabeth then went on to study Vocal Performance with Wendy Eathorne at Trinity College of Music, where she was chosen to represent the college at a Masterclass with Emma Kirkby at the Handel House Museum, and from whence she graduated with a PGDip in 2004. Elizabeth has studied singing with Janet Edmunds since 1997.

Elizabeth has appeared with numerous ensembles including the Midland Sinfonia, The Quinborne Choir, The Brockenhurst Choir, the Boston Sinfonia, North Yorkshire Chorus, Midland Hospitals Choir, Worrall MVC (Welsh Choir of the Year 2003), and Ex Cathedra, and has broadcast as a soloist on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service. From 2000-2003 Elizabeth was First Soprano Lay Clerk at the Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Chad, Birmingham.

Concert work has included: Haydn’s Creation, Nelson Mass, Great and Little Organ Masses and St. Nicholas Mass; Handel’s Messiah, Dixit Dominus and Gloria; Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate, Coronation Mass, Requiem, Vespers and Missa Brevis in D; Faure’s Requiem; Vivaldi’s Gloria and Nulla in mundo pax sincera; Purcell’s Come ye Sons of Art and Hail! Bright Cecilia; Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater; Saint-Saen’s Christmas Oratorio; Berkley’s Missa Brevis; Charpentier’s Midnight Mass; Panufnik’s Song to the Virgin Mary; Mahler’s Fourth Symphony; and Beethoven’s Choral Symphony.

Operatic roles include: Susanna and Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro; First Lady and First Spirit in The Magic Flute; Dido, the Sorceress, Belinda, the Spirit and the Witches in Dido and Aeneas; Venus in Venus and Adonis; Galatea in Acis and Galatea; Mrs. Sem in Noye’s Fludde; and a Young Tree in Paul Bunyan. Music Theatre roles include: Maria in West Side Story and Sarah in Guys and Dolls.

Elizabeth has given recitals in venues including the National Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Sheffield and Birmingham Cathedrals and the CBSO Centre, and she is a regular performer in Birmingham’s annual ArtsFest. Elizabeth regularly works in recital with the pianist Jonathan Gooing, The Bacchus String Quartet, the organist Mark Batten, and the lutenist James Akers.

In June 1999 Elizabeth gave the British Premiere of Anthony Mosakowski’s Five Ophelia Songs and in May 2000 she gave the World Premiere of Sam Thompson’s Five Songs about Love. In June 2003 she created the role of The Bride in the World Premiere of Samantha Caroline Graper’s opera The Song of Songs, and in September 2003 she gave the World Premiere of the same composer’s work for soprano and organ, O Viridissima Virga.