Arranger, choral director, composer, pianist, teacher and vocalist who attended Temple University and Westminster Choir College and has spent much of her time since freelancing as a conductor and soloist.
She has spent fourteen years with The Philadelphia Singers, the chorus-in-residence of The Philadelphia Orchestra. During her tenure, she has not only sung with the group, but served as the director of education and outreach and voice builder.
As a soloist, she has performed in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Philadelphia Singers, Handel’s Messiah with the Singing City Chorus, and Haydn’s The Creation with the Festival Orchestra of Spoleto, Italy.
She joined the faculty of The Academy of Vocal Arts in 1999, and has also taught at Friends Select School, The Hotchkiss School, New Hope-Solebury High School, The Philadelphia School, St. Joseph’s University, Temple University, and the University of Michigan.
In 2006, she founded Umbrian Serenades, LLC, and held the position of co-artistic director until 2009.
More recent years have found her in the Tabernacle United Church in Philadelphia where she has acted as music director, on stage at Verizon Hall as The Queen of Sheba in Solomon by Handel, and in her private studio where she teaches voice lessons to students in a variety of singing styles. She has also been the Artist in Residence for the Old First United Church of Christ and music director of Parkinsingers.
She also writes songs with five of them have been included in the book of hymns, Music By Heart: Paperless Songs for Evening Worship.
Here she is singing mezzo soprano…
Sources:
- http://www.artsandspirituality.org/about/artists/holly/
- http://www.linkedin.com/pub/holly-phares/6/439/b37
- http://www.spoke.com/info/pEjzpMU/HollyPhares
- http://www.umbrianserenades.com/about/staff.html
- https://www.hotchkiss.org/news/detail.aspx?pageaction=ViewSinglePublic&LinkID=989&ModuleID=105&NEWSPID=7
- http://www.jigsaw.com/scid22514318/holly_phares.xhtml
- https://www.parkinsingers.org/team