Charles Holland (1909-1987) was an American tenor and one of the important Black classical singers of the mid-twentieth century. He built a career in concert, opera and broadcast performance despite the racial barriers of his era.

In the Pristine catalogue he appears in Bernstein’s 1946 broadcast of Marc Blitzstein and other American repertory, a setting that places him in the progressive musical culture of the period.

Holland’s singing was admired for lyric beauty and musical refinement. His career also has historical importance because it reflects both artistic achievement and the exclusions faced by Black performers in American classical music.

His page deserves more than a passing cast-list mention. Holland’s voice belongs to the larger, unfinished story of who was allowed into the concert room and who sang brilliantly once there.