John Holiday (countertenor), Kevin Miller (piano)
Programme from album Over My Head including pieces by H Leslie Adams, Theodore Morrison, Robert Leigh Morris, Carlos Simon and George Gershwin. Full repertoire list at the bottom of this review
Wigmore Hall, London
Friday 13 November 2026
by John Earls. Photo credits (below) John Earls
John Holiday has a voice and personality that radiates warmth and conviction. The American countertenor, who performs on both opera and concert stage, has recently released his debut classical album, Over My Head, accompanied by pianist and best friend Kevin Miller. It’s an album that in his sleeve notes he advises “has been a long time in the making” with the music “carefully chosen for its powerful messages of hope, love and resilience”.
Looking resplendent in a striking green jacket, electric blue trousers and black spangled boots as he comes on stage at the Wigmore Hall for a lunchtime performance of the album (or at least most of it) with Miller, it’s clear from the outset that we are in the company of someone who also exudes brightness.
The set opens, as does the album, with Hall Johnson’s composition of the traditional spiritual text I’m Gonter Tell God All O’ My Troubles in which Holiday gives a real sense of yearning for inner peace and an early indication of the depth and range of expression in his singing.
That depth and range is also apparent when Holiday uses his voice to communicate without words in the two piano-accompanied textless vocal pieces in the programme, Carlos Simon’s Vocalise I and II, the latter giving a sense of contentedness and assurance (Vocalise III from the album was not performed due to time constraints).
There then follows Theodore Morrison’s 5 Songs on poems by James Joyce which highlights Millar’s deft piano playing such as on No. 1 Strings in the earth and air, with floating notes to Holiday’s soft singing and the twinkling accompaniment in the final section of the beautiful and mournful No. 4 Now, O now in this brown land. Things are brisker in the short No. 3 Lightly come or lightly go and vigorous No. 5 I hear an army with its urgent start and finish.
In a change to the album’s running order the next section features four pieces from H Leslie Adams’ Nightsongs: Prayer is delicate and beautiful, The Heart of a Woman sombre and meaningful, Night Song contains some dramatic closing piano flourishes, and Sence You Went Away, a real highlight of the concert, is exquisite in its sadness and sense of loss with exceptional timing and delivery in the second verse.
“At my core, I am a church boy,” says Holiday in the programme and album notes and we move on to what he tells us is his “gospel set” and three pieces from Robert Leigh Morris’s Lyric Suite starting with the jaunty Humoresque. Holiday then leaves the stage to emerge from the side door and sing the glorious Gospel Blues whilst walking up and down both aisles of the hall singing, “Oh my lord, what shall I do?”. It’s a powerful and affecting four minutes before he returns to the stage for the bright Juba: Ev’rytime I Feel the Spirit.
Holiday then sits solo at the piano to sing and play his own arrangements of three songs starting with George Gershwin’s Summertime from Porgy and Bess which is bouncy and well received, and then a moving rendition of Abel Meeropol’s Strange Fruit. Limited time means we don’t get to hear his arrangement of Bart Howard’s Fly Me to the Moon which is a jewel on the album.
Finally, there is the traditional Over My Head and Amazing Grace with Holiday encouraging the audience to sing the phrase “praise love” in the middle and for the next verse he changes the opening line from “So, over my head, I hear music in the air” to “I just heard music in the air”. His singing of “Somewhere! I believe there is a God somewhere” conveys a certainty of faith in the existence of a God with an uncertainty of whereabouts.
There is just time for a short encore, with Holiday conducting more audience participation for the gospel song This Little Light of Mine.
On a wintry November day and in a cold Wigmore Hall (where the audience kept their coats and scarves on) Holiday and Miller spread warmth and joy in this fantastic lunchtime recital.
They performed the following repertoire:
Hall Johnson I’m Gonter Tell God All O’ My Troubles
Carlos Simon I. from Vocalise
Theodore Morrison Chamber Music: 5 Songs on poems by James Joyce – No. 1 Strings in the earth and air • No. 2 O cool is the valley now • No. 3 Lightly come or lightly go • No. 4 Now, O now in this brown land • No. 5 I hear an army
Carlos Simon II. from Vocalise
H Leslie Adams from Nightsongs – Prayer • The Heart of a Woman • Night Song • Sence You Went Away
Robert Leigh Morris from Lyric Suite – III. Humoresque • II. Gospel Blues • V. Juba: Ev’rytime I Feel the Spirit
Gershwin arr Holiday Summertime from Porgy and Bess
Meeropol arr Holiday Strange Fruit
Traditional Over My Head; Amazing Grace
Gospel song: This Little Light of Mine (Encore)
Over My Head by John Holiday with Kevin Miller is released by Pentatone. For more details visit the Pentatone website
John Earls is Director of Research at Unite the Union and posts at @johnearls.bsky.social on Bluesky and @john_earls on X. You can subscribe (free) to his Hanging Out a Window Substack column here: https://johnearls.substack.com/
Published post no.3,079 – Sunday 15 November 2026
