Jonathan Bailey Holland

Born: February 27, 1974, Flint, Michigan

Assemble

• Composed: 2024
  
• Premiere: April 12–14, 2024, Louis Langrée conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic (co-commissioner). 
  
• Instrumentation: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons (incl. contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, claves, quad toms, sandpaper blocks, snare drum, 2 suspended cymbals, tam-tam, vibraphone, wind chimes, wood block, harp, strings
• CSO notable performances: These are the first CSO performances of the Assemble.
• Duration: approx. 13 minutes

Assemble is composer Jonathan Bailey Holland’s seventh work commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, where he served as composer-in-residence during the 2018–19 season. His commissions and performances have also included the orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, BBC, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kalamazoo, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Philadelphia, San Antonio and South Bend, and the New World Symphony, among others, as well as the Abeo Quartet, Da Capo Chamber Players, der/gelbe/klang, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Network for New Music, Present Music, Radius Ensemble, Plymouth Music Series and more. 

He is currently the dean of the Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music, as well as the Kay Davis Professor of Music, at Northwestern University. A recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, Holland has been awarded the Fromm Commission from the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University, a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship, a Brother Thomas Award and a Live Arts Boston grant from the Boston Foundation, among other honors and awards. His work can be heard on recordings by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (American Portraits, Paavo Järvi conducting), University of Texas Trombone Choir, Radius Ensemble and Transient Canvas, as well as pianist Sarah Bob and flutist Christopher Chaffee.

Holland holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied composition with Ned Rorem, and a PhD from Harvard University, where he studied with Bernard Rands, Mario Davidovsky, Andrew Imbrie and Yehudi Wyner.

Holland writes the following about Assemble:

Rhythm, harmony and melody are basic musical building blocks. These elements are often interwoven to create a layered musical landscape. In this work, each of these elements is introduced individually, one emerging from the energy produced by the one before. By the end you will have heard the rhythm, harmony and melody separately, but you will have also heard the piece in its entirety through the presentation of the individual parts…which are, of course, interdependent, and not always easy to separate.