Grethe Barrett Holby

Grethe Barrett Holby (born April 26, 1948) is an American producer, stage director, choreographer and dramaturge best known for her work in opera. Holby is noted as the founder of American Opera Projects, where she served as Artistic Director from 1988 until 2001. She currently serves as Executive Artistic Director of Family Opera Initiative which she founded in 1995, and Ardea Arts, Inc., which she founded in 2006. The Rockefeller Foundation awarded Holby a 2006 Creative Arts Residency The Bellagio Center.

Holby was born in New Rochelle, New York, and grew up in Larchmont, New York, the daughter of Aase-Grethe (Hall) and Warren Barrett Holby, a founding partner of Merritt & Holby, a housing development firm. Her mother was Norwegian, and fought for the resistance and the Norwegian government-in-exile during World War II, including saving Jews in Norway. Because of these activities, she was imprisoned at a concentration camp. Her paternal grandfather was of German ancestry and her paternal grandmother was of English descent.

Holby attended Interlochen Arts Camp ('63) and Mamaroneck High School ('66). She then enrolled at Bryn Mawr College. Holby later transferred to MIT where she received a BS in Art and Design in 1971. She subsequently earned a Master of Architecture degree ('73) from MIT with a thesis titled, The Relationship of Theater and Architecture in the Theatrical Experience. She also cross-registered at Harvard to study set design with Franco Colavecchia.

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