Simon Holt was born in
Bolton, Lancashire on 21 February 1958. Educated at
Bolton School, Holt immersed himself in organ, piano and visual art during his sixth form years. In 1976, he attended Bolton College of Art for a year where he fulfilled a foundation course in all areas of visual representation. Shortly before achieving a diploma in composition from the
Royal Northern College of Music, where he studied with
Anthony Gilbert for four years from 1978 to 1982, he received a commission from the
London Sinfonietta, which became
Kites (1983). He was soon firmly established with a series of commissions and fruitful collaborations including not only with the Sinfonietta, but also the
Nash Ensemble and the
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, resulting in pieces such as
eco-pavan (1998),
Sparrow Night (1989) and
Lilith (1990) respectively. Inspired by
Messiaen,
Xenakis and
Feldman as well as visual artists such as
Goya,
Alberto Giacometti and
Brâncuși, his music is innately dramatic and impulsive in nature. His output comprises chamber music, concertos, songs, opera, orchestral and piano music. From 2000 onwards, Holt has written several concertos and orchestral pieces, including
a table of noises (2007), a percussion concerto for
Colin Currie. Holt was Composer in Association with the
BBC National Orchestra of Wales from 2008 to 2014, working closely with the conductor
Thierry Fischer on pieces such as
Troubled Light (2008) for orchestra and
Morpheus Wakes (2011), a flute concerto written for
Emmanuel Pahud, both for the
BBC Proms. Previously, Holt had been commissioned to write two orchestral pieces for the BBC Proms;
Syrensong (1987), his first orchestral piece, written for the
BBC Symphony Orchestra and the viola concerto,
walking with the river’s roar (1991), for
Nobuko Imai and the
BBC Philharmonic. Recent commissions include the orchestral piece,
Surcos (2016), for
Sir Simon Rattle and the
Berliner Philharmoniker and co-commissioned by the
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra who gave the UK premiere with the conductor
Ilan Volkov and the basset clarinet concerto,
Joy Beast (2016), for
Mark Simpson and the BBC Philharmonic as part of the New Music Biennial 2017. Simon Holt's music has been recorded on several record labels, most extensively with
NMC. Holt is currently Professor of Composition at the
Royal College of Music.
Career highlights • 1978–82 – Studied at the
Royal Northern College of Music with
Anthony Gilbert • 1998 – Featured composer at
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival • 2002 – Ivor Novello Classical Music Award for
Boots of Lead • 2006 – British Composer Award (Orchestral) for
witness to a snow miracle • 2015 –
3rd Quartet was premièred by the
JACK Quartet at
Wigmore Hall and the Internationales Musikfestival
Heidelberger Frühling • 2017 –
Surcos, a co-commission from the
Berliner Philharmoniker (conducted by
Sir Simon Rattle) and
CBSO (with
Ilan Volkov), was performed three times in Berlin and opened the Berliner Philharmoniker's first appearance at the
Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg • 2017 – Basset clarinet concerto,
Joy Beast, written for
Mark Simpson and commissioned by the BBC, received four performances; premièred in Hull and then in London as part of the New Music Biennial 2017 • 2018 – Featured at the
Aldeburgh Festival with a series of chamber pieces including two world premières ==Key works==