Nancy Holt is a mezzo-soprano from West Sussex in her final year of the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD), having previously graduated with a Masters of Performance with distinction in 2020.
Nancy will be an Associate Artist for Nevill Holt Opera Season 2023 playing the roles of Tisbe in La Cenerentola, La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi and Chorus in Pagliacci.
Recent highlights includes playing Jean de Moncerf in Le Portrait de Manon by Massenet and Lisa in I due timidi by Nino Rota at Guildhall Opera Course and performances at the Lerici Baroque Festival in Italy with Vache Baroque. In the summer she played the role of Mistress Quickly in Sir John in Love with British Youth Opera at Opera Holland Park which she was awarded the Basil A Turner Prize.
She will be playing Mrs. Patrick De Rocher in Dead Man Walking by Jake Heggie at Guildhall Opera Course in March 2023.
Other highlights include a double bill : Weill & Monteverdi performing Monteverdi Madrigals at GSMD, Prospero (The Enchanted Island -British Youth Opera cover), Hippolyta (A Midsummer Night’s Dream - GSMD Opera School cover), Cornelia (Giulio Cesare - Kings College London Opera Society), Pepìček (Brundibar - Boco Arts Festival) and Alto Solo (Acis and Galatea - Vache Baroque Festival).
Nancy was due to join the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus in 2020 which was sadly cancelled due to Covid-19 and she was a member of the Opera Holland Park chorus in 2019.
During her time at Guildhall she has done a variety of opera scenes including Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier), Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Cenerentola (La Cenerentola), Idamante (Idomeneo), Le Prince Charmant (Cendrillon), Nancy (Albert Herring) and Béatrice (Béatrice et Bénédict).
In March 2020, Nancy made her debut at the Barbican Concert Hall, performing in an LSO Platform for Guildhall Artists in a recital of Debussy songs. Nancy was selected for the Graham Johnson Song Guild 2019, for which she was awarded the Paul Hamburger Prize for Voice. She was later invited to be a soloist for Graham Johnson’s lecture recital ‘Franz Schubert in Italy, France and England’.
As an oratorio soloist, she performed works include Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, Requiem and Vesperae solennes de confessore, Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium (Part 1), Beethoven’s Mass in C, Saint-Saën's Oratorio de Noël, Schubert’s Mass in Eb Major and Vivaldi’s Gloria and Magnificat.
Nancy is a trained dancer having studied ballet, modern and tap dance for over ten years.
She studies with John Evans and is generously supported by The Countess of Munster Musical Trust 2021 and Help Musicians UK as a Sybil Tutton Opera Award 2021.
