Derek Holden (b. 1990) holds a B.M. in Music Composition from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and is currently working on his M.M. in Music Composition at the University of Alabama.
An enthusiastic collaborator, Holden has worked with a wide variety of instruments and performers. Holden is currently working on projects with performers all over the United States and Japan, ranging from a quartet for euphonium, tenor sax, cello, and piano, a piece for a large wind ensemble, to any number of solo pieces for various instruments and performers. Holden’s music is shaped significantly by working with a collaborating performer. Notable names from this list include Garth Knox, violist of Ensemble Intercontemporain and Arditti Quartet fame, as well as Dr. Paul Bowman, a favorite guitarist of many prominent American composers. Outside of collaboration, Holden’s biggest musical concerns are with timbre and making attempts to develop a theory of timbre. The belief that timbre can be used in just as contrapuntally a fashion as pitch and rhythm is a driving force in all of Holden’s music, regardless of instrumentation.
Holden attended the Etchings Festival in Auvillar, France in July of 2014. At this festival, he studied with Mark Andre, Beat Furrer and had a performance of his solo viola work, The Axe Has Flowered.
Holden has studied composition with C. P. First, Marvin Johnson, and Peter Westergaard, euphonium with Demondrae Thurman and Ryan Black, and classical guitar with Michael Johnson. Holden is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), as well as a member of the Society of Composers Incorporated (SCI). Holden is currently artistic director of the Tuscaloosa New Music Collective. Holden has been published by Potenza Music and the International Journal for Contemporary Composition.