Charles Holland was born in
Norfolk, Virginia, on December 27, 1909. The elder brother of
jazz trumpeter
Peanuts Holland, he started taking singing lessons at the age of 14. In the 1930s he sang in the jazz orchestras of
Benny Carter and
Fletcher Henderson. With the latter, he recorded the 1934 album
Harlem Madness (Victor 21699). He also performed in musical theaters, toured with the
Hall Johnson Choir, and had his own radio show on
NBC for 13 weeks. Holland moved to
Los Angeles, where he studied with May Hamaker Henley and Georges Le Pyre, and with Clyde Burrows in New York. In the following years he had roles in
Marc Connelly's drama
The Green Pastures (1936, uncredited, possibly as soloist in the Hall Johnson Choir) and in the film
Hullabaloo (1940). Eventually Holland shifted musically to classical music, appearing in
Virgil Thomson's
Four Saints in Three Acts (1928);
Hall Johnson's
Run, Little Chillun (1933); and
Marc Blitzstein's
The Airborne Symphony (1946). On the occasion of his recital debut at
the Town Hall in New York City in 1940,
Ross Parmenter praised him in
The New York Times; "a refined and delicate artist with a light voice which was sweet and true". ==Career outside of the United States==