Born on January 2nd, 1890 in the village of Verbivtsi, in the Ivano-Frankivsk district of Ukraine (then Austro-Hungarian
Empire).
Dramatic tenor.
Studied voice at the Lviv conservatory with C. Zaremba and from 1921 to 1925 in Milano with Edoardo Garbin.
Participated in WWI in the Austro-Hungarian army. Starting from 1918, he was in the Ukranian-Galician army. In 1919, he worked
for the Secretariat of Military Affairs of the Western-Ukranian People's Republic in Stanyslaviv (now Ivano-Frankivsk).
In 1925/26 and 1933/34, he was a soloist of the Warsaw opera theater, in 1926/27 at the Odessa opera theater, 1927–1930 in
Kharkiv. He also sang in Kiev, Tbilisi, Leningrad and Moscow. From 1930 to 1938 (with some intermissions), he sang at the Lviv
opera theater.
In 1938, he emigrated to the USA, and then Canada, where he continued his concerts.
He had a strong voice of wide diapason, a beautiful timbre with a shining upper register of metallic hue.
Some of his memorable roles were Andrij ("Zaporozhets za Dunajem" by Hulak-Artemovskyj, Stepan ("Kupalo" by Anatol Vakhnjanyn,
1929 world premiere of this late 19th century work at the Kharkiv opera), German, Jontek, Canio, Cavaradossi, Raadames,
José, Hoffmann, Éléazar.
In his concerts, he performed the works of N. Nyzhankivskyj, D. Sichynskyj, M. Lysenko, J. Stepovyj, S. Ljudkevych, as well as
folk songs.
He wrote a book called "Memories", which only saw the light of the day in Moscow in 1993.
Holynskyj died on December 1st, 1973 in Edmonton, Canada.