Composers
Simon Holt
© Chris Christodoulou
Born: 1958
Simon Holt was born in Bolton, Lancashire in 1958. After completing a foundation course at Bolton Art College, he went on to study composition for four years with Anthony Gilbert at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. He is a Fellow of the University of Bolton.
Holt first came to prominence as the featured composer of the 1985 Bath International Festival. As a young composer he was also taken up by the late Michael Vyner, then artistic director of the London Sinfonietta, who commissioned Kites (1983) and Ballad of the Black Sorrow (1988). Holt's relationship with the London Sinfonietta has continued with a steady stream of performances and premieres, most recently Sueños (2007) for baritone and ensemble, performed by the Sinfonietta with soloist Roderick Williams in London and Madrid.
Simon Holt’s output for chamber ensemble is large, including seven pieces written for the Nash Ensemble. The first four of these: Shadow Realm, Sparrownight, …era madrugada and Canciones were recorded by the Nash on the NMC label. Holt has also developed a hugely successful relationship with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, who have commissioned several pieces, and who recorded a second portrait CD on the NMC label, released in 2004. Included on the disc is Holt's most popular ensemble piece Lilith, which has been performed by Europe's leading ensembles including Ensemble Modern, Ensemble InterContemporain, MusikFabrik, the Asko Ensemble and the Remix Ensemble.
Simon Holt finds his inspiration from, amongst others, the world of Greek myth. His Icarus Trilogy culminated in 1995 with the premiere of his cello concerto Daedalus Remembers. In addition, he feels a great affinity for the writing of Federico García Lorca, whose dark, passionate and enigmatic texts have much in common with Holt’s own sound world. He has set Lorca’s texts in several chamber works and in his first opera The Nightingale’s to Blame, the premiere of which formed the focal point of a major retrospective at the 1998 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.
Simon Holt’s soprano and orchestra piece Sunrise’ yellow noise (2000), for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Lisa Milne under Sir Simon Rattle went on tour to the Cologne Triennale in May 2000, and was the subject of a one hour TV documentary. In 2001 Simon Holt received Le Prix de la Fondation Prince Pierre, Monaco for this piece.
Sunrise’ yellow noise is the first part of the cycle a ribbon of time, which encompasses five pieces of various genre based on poems by Emily Dickinson. The other four pieces in the cycle are Two movements for string quartet (2001), which received the Royal Philharmonic Society Award in 2002; Boots of Lead (2002) for alto and ensemble, which was premiered by BCMG, Rinat Shaham and Sir Simon Rattle in October 2002 and received the Ivor Novello Classical Music Award; Clandestiny (2000) for soprano and organ; and startled Grass (2001) for female voices and cello.
The startlingly original music theatre piece Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm?, commissioned by Almeida Aldeburgh Opera, was performed around the UK in 2003 to huge acclaim and judged Best Stage Work at the 2004 British Composer Awards. It led to a number of 'spin-off' pieces – The Coroner's Report (2004) for ensemble, the other side of silence (2004) for flute, viola and harp, and the sharp end of night (2005) for solo violin.
In recent years, Holt has turned his hand to orchestral writing, notably with a pair of concertos for star soloists. His violin concerto, entitled witness to a snow miracle, was performed in London and Bonn by Viviane Hagner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and judged Best Orchestral Work at the 2006 British Composer Awards. The percussion concerto a table of noises was written for Colin Currie to a co-commission from the Borletti-Buitoni Trust, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, and was premiered in Birmingham in May 2008.
In April 2008 Holt was named as Composer in Association with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. The first of four planned commissions for them is the orchestral work Troubled Light, which will be premiered by the orchestra under Thierry Fischer at the BBC Proms in July 2008. This will be Holt’s third orchestral commission for the Proms, following on from Syrensong (1987) and the viola concerto Walking with the River’s Roar, premiered by Nobuko Imai and the BBC Philharmonic in 1992.
Simon Holt's music is published exclusively by Chester Music.
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