Jonathan Bailey Holland

Profile

Jonathan Bailey Holland’s music has been commissioned and performed by numerous orchestras, including the Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Colorado, Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Memphis, Minnesota, National, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Springfield, St. Louis, and South Bend Symphony Orchestras; as well as the Auros Group for New Music; the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble; Transient Canvas; Boston Opera Collaborative; Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia; Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies; Greater Baltimore Youth Orchestra; Orchestra 2001, and many others.

Originally from Flint, Michigan, Holland began studying composition while a student at the Interlochen Arts Academy. He went on to study with Ned Rorem at the Curtis Institute of Music, and later received a PhD in Music from Harvard University, where his primary teachers were Bernard Rands and Mario Davidovsky. He also studied with Andrew Imbrie, Yehudi Wyner, Robert Saxton, and Robert Sirota. He is currently Chair of Composition, Theory and History at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, as well as Faculty Chair of the low-residency Music Composition program at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

A recipient of a 2015 Fromm Foundation Commission, he has received honors from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, American Music Center, ASCAP, the Presser Foundation, and more. He has served as Composer-in-Residence for the Plymouth Music Series of Minnesota (currently Vocal Essence); Ritz Chamber Players; Detroit and South Bend Symphony Orchestras; and the Radius Ensemble.

His works have been recorded by the Cincinnati Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the University of Texas Trombone Choir, and most recently by the Radius Ensemble, among others. Holland served as composer-in-residence with Radius Ensemble; the Ritz Chamber Players; the South Bend Symphony Orchestra as part of the Music Alive program sponsored by Meet the Composer and the American Symphony Orchestra League; the Plymouth Music Series of Minnesota (currently Vocal Essence) as part of their WITNESS program; and with the Detroit Symphony, through the Unisys African-American Composer Residency and National Symposium program.

Recent highlights include the premiere of Equality for narrator and orchestra for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the premiere of String Quartet No. 2: Forged Sanctuaries by Curtis on Tour, commissioned to commemorate the centennial of National Park Service and the 50th anniversary of the National Endowment for the Arts.

To listen to more of John Bailey Holland’s music, visit his sound gallery.