Composer Jonathan Bailey Holland Featured On BRIDGING THE GAP, 6/4

Composer Jonathan Bailey Holland will be featured on Robert Sirota's National Sawdust series, Bridging the Gap, on Sunday, June 4 at 7pm. A season-long series, the concerts and conversations explore the student/teacher, mentor/mentee relationships between generations of composers. Steve Smith, Director of Publications at National Sawdust, will moderate a conversation with Sirota, Holland, and composer Angel Lam, and music by all three composers will be performed.

Through performance and conversation, the Bridging the Gap series looks at the evolution of musical styles and approaches over the last 20-40 years, asking and answering questions such as: How has the music changed? From what aesthetic values and sound worlds are new works emerging? What are the roles of academic vs. non-academic influences? How are younger composers learning from their teachers, and vice versa?

The relationship between Holland and Sirota began when Holland was a high-school composition student at the summer intensive Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI). Sirota mentored him as he solidified his compositional technique, and Holland later studied under him during Mr. Sirota's time as Chairman of the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions at New York University.

During the June 4 Bridging the Gap concert and conversation, a chamber ensemble will perform Holland's The Clarity of Cold Air, written for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion. The piece alternates between chilly dissonance and articulate tonality within the framework of bright microtonalism which highlights Holland's compositional abilities for small ensembles.

Holland says about Clarity of Cold Air, "Inspired by many a cold, Northern Midwest or New England day, this work is primarily atmospheric, focusing on the sonorities achieved by blending the instruments of the ensemble in various ways. There are many stark sounds - high, glassy harmonics from the strings, bowed metallic percussion instruments, harsh multi-phonics from the winds, airy cymbal rolls."

Full Concert details:

Panel discussion with Robert Sirota, Jonathan Bailey Holland, and composer Angel Lam, moderated by Steve Smith

Jonathan Bailey Holland: Clarity of Cold Air

Robert Sirota:

Robert Sirota:

About Jonathan Bailey Holland:

A native of Flint, MI, composer Jonathan Bailey Holland earned a Ph.D. in Music from Harvard University and studied composition with Ned Rorem at the Curtis Institute of Music. His works have 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.

Recent highlights include the premiere of Equality for narrator and orchestra for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra featuring the poetry of Maya Angelou, and the premiere of Forged Sanctuaries by Curtis on Tour, commissioned to commemorate the centennial of National Park Service.

A recipient of a 2015 Fromm Foundation Commission at Harvard University, 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 music has been recorded by the Cincinnati Symphony; the University of Texas Trombone Choir; trumpeter Jack Sutte; and flutist Christopher Chaffee. He has recently released a piece on Radius Ensemble's new recording, Fresh Paint, and has an upcoming release planned with pianist Sarah Bob.

Holland is Chair of Composition, Theory and History at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and Faculty Chair of the Music Composition program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. He has also served as Professor of Composition at Berklee College of Music.

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