Baroque violinist John Holloway gained recognition as concertmaster of several pioneering early music ensembles in Britain. He also performs on a modern violin and is a noted educator. Holloway was born in Neath, Wales, on July 19, 1948. He played his first public concert at the age of eight. The following year, he began studies with violinist Yfrah Neaman; these were private at first, but he then studied with Neaman at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. There, he also took chamber music classes with William Pleeth and served as concertmaster of the Guildhall Orchestra. Holloway won several international competitions and toured the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand with the Menuhin Festival Orchestra, winning a position in the Bournemouth Sinfonietta as a second violinist and forming the Silvestri String Quartet. Holloway's move into historical performance came after he heard Baroque violinist Sigiswald Kuijken in 1972. His interest in early music expanded as he served later in the '70s as concertmaster of the Kent Opera Orchestra, then under the direction of Roger Norrington, for whose London Classical Players, he also served as concertmaster. In 1975, Holloway founded his own early music ensemble, L'École d'Orphée. He was heard on a 1988 recording of Bach's Musical Offering, BWV 1079, on the Harmonia Mundi label. Serving as concertmaster of the Taverner Consort and Players from 1977 to 1991, Holloway also maintained a career as an educator. He taught at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Schola Cantorum in Basel, and the Early Music Institute of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. In 1999, he began teaching at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden. From 2003 to 2005, Holloway served as the music director of the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, and in 2005, he co-founded the historical performance group Mannheimer Hofkapelle. From 2006 to 2012, Holloway served as director of the Violine in Dresden competition and master class event. He has continued to be based in Dresden. Retiring from his Dresden teaching post in 2014, he has continued to record for ECM, which has issued many of his more than 100 recordings. In 2023, he issued the album Henry Purcell: Fantazias with his own John Holloway Ensemble; it was recorded in 2015. ~ James Manheim, Rovi