John Thomas Holiday Jr.’s most romantic Valentine’s Day wasn’t actually on Valentine’s Day. “I was living in Cincinnati in 2010,” the native Houstonian recalls. “And Paul (who’s a surveyor for an oil company) arrived before Valentine’s Day for a visit, and we had this wonderful dinner at Primavista, a lovely Italian restaurant overlooking the river. And then two days after Valentine’s Day, he proposed.”

Holiday and Paul Gater will celebrate their second wedding anniversary this February 4, and on Valentine’s Day Holiday will be singing Italian love songs by Monteverdi, Vivaldi, and Scarlatti with Ars Lyrica at the Houston Early Music Festival. Besides being a romantic, Holiday is also a renowned operatic countertenor—probably the only one residing in Rosenberg, Texas.

Born in Houston, Holiday’s family moved to Rosenberg in Fort Bend County, where he was raised. He started singing in church (and his ABCs in school) at age two, and performed his first solo, “Let There Be Peace on Earth,” in the second grade at Travis Elementary.