John Holloway took up baroque violin in the early 1970s. With his baroque ensemble, L’Ecole d’Orphée, he made the first complete recording on historical instruments of Handel’s instrumental chamber music. Since then his growing chamber music and solo discography has ranged from Castello and Fontana to Vivaldi, Telemann and beyond. His recording of Biber’s "Mystery Sonatas" won a Gramophone Award in 1991, and remains the reference recording of this music. He was awarded two Danish Grammys for recordings of music by Buxtehude. Since 1997 he has made a number of acclaimed recordings for ECM New Series, including the Sonatas and Partitas for Violin solo by Bach.  

John Holloway is one of the most experienced concertmasters in the ‘Early Music’ world, having led orchestras for such diverse directors as Christie, Hogwood, Leonhardt, Koopman, Malgoire, McGegan. He was for many years concertmaster of Roger Norrington’s London Classical Players and of Andrew Parrott’s Taverner Players, leading groundbreaking performances and recordings of repertoire from the Florentine Intermedii to Brahms symphonies. This has in turn led to numerous projects featuring Holloway as conductor and/or director from the violin, in repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to Britten.

He has taught at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, at the Schola Cantorum in Basel, and in the Early Music Institute of Indiana University in Bloomington. He has given classes and led workshops in most European countries, as well as in Korea, New Zealand and the USA. In 2004 he was Regents’ Lecturer at UC Berkeley. In 1999 he was appointed Professor of Violin (modern and baroque) and Chamber Music at the Hochschule für Musik in Dresden, Germany. From 2006 to 2012 he was Artistic Director of the International Competition and Masterclass "Violin in Dresden". 

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