Nashon Holloway
With a name meaning “oracle,” Nashon Holloway was born to sing healing. National Public Radio refers to the Kalamazoo-born, Chicago-bred singer’s sound as “crisp and colorful” and her soulful jazz-tinged guitar-playing is a testament to her lived manifesto: harmony is a lifestyle.
Nashon has been seen on The Oprah Winfrey Show with David Foster, with Tank and the Bangas, Kelly Rowland, Drake, Bobby McFerrin, Uniting Voices Chicago (formerly Chicago Children's Choir), Jennifer Hudson, Live with Hans Zimmer (composer for such films as The Lion King, The Dark Knight, and Inception), with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, LiV Warfield of Prince's New Power Generation, opera aficionado Paulo Szot, composer Nobuo Uematsu, and most recently she toured as a featured vocalist with American Idol! winner Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken.
She tours around the globe performing original music as well, and often the music of legends like Stevie Wonder and Roberta Flack, Emily King, and Lianne La Havas. She is a featured musician in exhibition at The National Jazz Museum in Harlem, New York. She has also composed for independent films such as Chasing After You and has a new commercial music set for release in the fall of 2024. Listeners and audience-goers can find her touring or on social media under her own name.
Having composed original music herself for symphony orchestra, she has recorded with producer Narada Michael Walden, who wrote Whitney Houston’s first seven Billboard charting hits including "How Will I Know,” and even though her childhood mentors were Motown legend, her dream goes beyond music.
A visual artist and educator, she calls herself a "daughter of griots" as a borrowed term from West African poets, musicians, and creatives who maintain the oral histories of their people through art.
Nashon has an undergraduate Bachelor of Arts in poetry, philosophy, and vocal jazz (study under Dr. Steve Zegree and Dr. Duane Davis at Western Michigan University). Thusly, she combines various art forms (including visual elements) as immersive healing modalities within the concert or exhibition experience.
Nashon is a mentor with The Light (A Collaboraction Young Artists Initiative in Chicago), a program designed to offer resources to young people pursuing music and music business with the interest of cultivating social change.
She currently serves as Vice Chair of Arts & Ancestry at The Institute of Public Scholarship and performs music full-time.
Profile image by: Chollette
Featured Artworks
Courtesy of Aragon Artists
Nashon Holloway and the Funktion. Photo by Derek Ketchum.
Nashon performing at Catalyst University
Photo by Phillip Tawanchaya.
Photo by Xavier Leeds. Courtesy of Lena Blu Foundation.