Alan Holley | Composer in Residence
Australian composer Alan Holley's first professional performance was at the Sydney Opera House in 1974. Supported by the Australia Council, his music has been performed and broadcast in Australia since the mid-1970s and gained recognition in America and Europe over the past thirty years. Notable events include a concert in Zagreb in 2012, a residency at the Sydney International Brass Festival in 2013, and a featured profile in Belgrade in 2014. Celebrating his 60th birthday, he performed at Watters Gallery in Sydney, followed by a concert by Sirius Chamber Ensemble in 2015. In May 2016, he toured southeastern Europe and was composer-in-residence at the Podium Festival in Croatia.
In 2018, a choral work with poet Mark Tredinnick, And the Rain, was performed by the Australian Chamber Choir in Victoria and Sydney. They later commissioned and performed Time Passages during their 2019 tours in Australia, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, and England. Alan was a guest at the Amadeus Festival in Bjelovar, Croatia, and later gave masterclasses and a concert at the Archaeological Museum of Tirana, invited by Ilir Kodhima.
“music expertly crafted, with a fantastic sense of invention and fluidity that maintained the listener’s attention throughout.”
Major compositions include the opera Dorothea (1988), five song cycles, and various works for small ensembles and solo instruments. Larger works are Chamber Symphony (2003) and The Winged Viola (2004) for solo viola and ensemble. The trumpet concerto Doppler’s Web (2005) for soloist Paul Goodchild, A Line of Stars (2007), and A Shaft of Light (2015) for oboe and orchestra with Shefali Pryor were commissioned and performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Loaded with Dream (2011) was commissioned by the Sydney Symphony for the Fellows. In 2012, the Seraphim Trio toured his piano trio ‘the estuaries of time.’
Holley teaches trumpet and composition, with works for flute, double bass, trumpet, and other brass in the Australian Music Examinations Board syllabus. EMI Australia published the collections Summer Bird and Birds of Opal. His chamber and vocal music CDs include Ophelia and Masquerade (MBS label) and Solos, Hammerings, and Doppler’s Web (Hammerings Records). Four trumpet works are on Paul Goodchild’s Mixed Dozen CD (1M1 label).
In 2024 Alan returns to the Balkans and to Italy for music festivals and composer residencies.
Alan Holley is published by Kookaburra Music and recorded on Hammerings Records.
