Derek Holman

Biography

Sample Works

DR. DEREK HOLMAN, born in Cornwall, England, in 1931, received his musical training at the Royal Academy of Music, studying piano with York Bowen, organ with Sir William McKie and theory with Eric Thiman and William Cole. He received no formal instruction in composition but won three composition prizes while a student. He holds the degree of Doctor of Music from the University of London.

After two years of purgatory in the British Army, he was appointed Music Master at Westminster Abbey Choir School and in 1956 became Tutor and later Warden of the Royal School of Church Music. He was for several years organist at the Leith Hill Music Festival and founded the Croydon Bach Society in 1960.

In 1965, he immigrated with his wife and three children to Canada to become organist at Grace Church-on-the-Hill, Toronto and, since 1981, has been organist at the Church of St. Simon the Apostle where he enthusiastically continues the tradition of a choir of men and boys. His interest in training children led him to become Musical Director of the Canadian Children's Opera Chorus from 1975-85.

Holman's style and influences began to develop early in his life. When he was a child, he was encouraged by his parents to explore the piano keyboard and he improvised a great deal before teaching himself to read music. He was avid, too, in analysing musical form, and this helped when he started composing at the age of eleven and has helped ever since. The music he heard in his youth was chiefly choral -- first oratorios, later the English School from Tallis to Britten, and this explains why most of his music is for voices.

He always uses the piano when composing, particularly in getting started on new works, and always in checking what he has written. Of twentieth century composers, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Vaughan Williams and Britten mean most to him but he has not tried to imitate them.

"I would be hard-pressed to describe my musical style: when asked why I write in a particular manner, I can only say that I wrestle with the notes until the piece sounds right to me, in its details and as a whole, and then I wish it 'Bon voyage', hoping it will 'sound right' to other people too."

Since 1966, Holman has taught at the Faculty of Music in the University of Toronto.

1988

CAPAC, Canadian League of Composers

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