Biography
John Holland (b. 1944) is a composer and Professor
in the Studio for Interrelated Media at Massachusetts College of Art
and Design in Boston.
The composer's work emphasizes the integration of science and art, incorporating structures and ideas which reference a variety of natural phenomena. He has taught a class for three decades that introduce artists to leading-edge ideas in science. In the early 1980's Holland co-founded Nature and Inquiry, an artists group that meets weekly to discuss ideas in art and science.
Each fall Holland produces a music program in Boston, New Music at the Pozen Center, that mixes contemporary and electronic music with innovative performative features.
John Holland has produced recordings of electronic and digital music and has published scores of solo music, chamber music, orchestra, concertos, operas, and songs, well as a variety of performance texts designed to be read aloud.
In his digital music the composer combines 'intelligent' music composition, algorithmic aesthetics, and electronically processed sounds. His musical scores employ conventional and 'collaborative' notation. The collaborative pieces for solo electronic instruments employ electronically processed sounds as a means of expanding the expressive qualities of the instrument.
The composer's musical scores and texts for speaking voice are published by American Sound Press. CD's of the composer's electronic music are available in music stores and through Electronic Music Foundation on the Internet. Published books include The Nature of Music for the Performing Musician, Time, Sound Waves and Their Properties in the Surrounding Media, and Studies on the Human Ear. 'The Perception of Music' and 'The Chicken and the Egg: A Collection of Writings on Nature, Science, and Art' are in preparation. Books are available through Spectrum Music.