“A breath of fresh air”
ABOUT
Hollie is a composer, researcher and curator of contemporary music events in the UK and overseas. Her most recent project, Melting, Shifting, Liquid World was the first composition to incorporate the use of open-ear, bone-conduction headsets alongside live acoustic and amplified instruments to create an immersive, multi-layered sonic environment for the audience to move around and within. The project was awarded funding by Arts Council England, PRS Foundation’s Women Make Music, Hinrichsen Foundation and Gemma Classical Music Trust and was written for electric viola soloist Nic Pendlebury and string ensemble. Three sold out world premiere performances took place on the iconic Great Map, after hours at the National Maritime Museum in March 2019, with further performances set to take place in 2020.
Hollie has a longstanding connection with Norway and is grateful to have twice received funding from the Norwegian Arts Council to work with Alwynne Pritchard and Sjøforsvarets Musikkorps (Norwegian Navy Band). Other ensembles she has worked with include the London Philharmonic Orchestra, CHROMA ensemble, Castallian String Quartet, Ensemble Via Nova (Weimar) and DeciBells (Basel). She was 2017 Composer in Residence with CoMA and subsequently led workshops on their Summer School in Orkney, and at their 2018 Festival of Contemporary Music for All. She was also one of four selected composers on the Cohan Collective 2018 residency working with choreographers, dancers and members of Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra at Pavilion Dance South West.
She is Artistic Advisor and Trustee for Borough New Music and has been Director of Production for the London Ear Festival since it began in 2013.
SELECTED AWARDS
2018 - 19
PRS Foundation - Women Make Music Artist, with funding awarded for Melting, Shifting, Liquid World
Awarded Arts Council England project funding to support Melting, Shifting, Liquid World, and funding from the Hinrichsen Foundation and Gemma Classical Music Trust.
The Cohan Collective, Composer in Residence
Neither Nor, Either Or Artist Residency, Ytre Arna
2017 - 18
CoMA Composer in Residence
Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
2016 – 17
Trinity Laban RDP Scholarship for fully funded PhD in Composition
2015 - 16
Bergen International Festival Commission funded by the Norwegian Arts Council for Ritual I, part of Alwynne Pritchard’s DOG/GOD Project
2013 - 14
Sjøforsvarets Musikkorps (Norwegian Navy Band) commission for Fracture performed at the opening concert of Brasswind festival, funded by Norwegian Arts Council
2011 - 12
Leverhulme Young Composer working with the London Philharmonic Orchestra on their Debut Sounds scheme
MMus Composition (Distinction), Royal Academy of Music
Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music in Composition Teaching
Dorothy Kennedy Davis Award, Royal Academy of Music
R. Harvey Löhr Award, Royal Academy of Music
2010 - 11
RVW Trust Award for Postgraduate Composition Students
Arts Humanities Research Council Professional Preparation Masters Block Grant Partnership (full funding for MMus)
2009 – 2010
Artist in Residence, USF Verftet, Bergen, Norway (3 months)
2008 – 2009
BMus Hons Composition (First-Class)
Silver Medal for Composition Studies, Trinity Laban
Cyril Cork Prize, Trinity Laban
Photo: Phil Stewart
Photo: Jacob Whiting
PRESS
“…the result was an entirely different, much more expansive sense of immersion than one usually experiences. The work’s title could hardly have been more directly relevant to what the music was doing. It was easy to hear its slow changing and evolving forms as processes of shift and melt, and the fluidity of Harding’s material – no solid sonic objects here – combined with the way we could move anywhere at any point to create a world that felt decidedly liquid… Further tensions emerged between tendencies toward dronal stasis and large dissonant agglomerations, the flat map beneath our feet seemingly being extended upward into something three-dimensional through the pronounced shifts in musical contour.” Extract from review of Melting, Shifting, Liquid World - Dr. Simon Cummings, 5:4 (click for full article)
“The effect of this multi-layered, multimedia approach was nothing less than scintillating, the evocative strains of Harding’s orchestration counterpointing the often unsettling sensation caused by the pre-recorded sonic textures fed to us through headphones… But the real star of the show was Harding, whose brilliant score and setting made this one of the finest immersive performances I have ever had the pleasure of seeing – and I’ve seen some great ones over the years” Extract from review of Melting, Shifting, Liquid World - Miles Hedley, Greenwich Visitor (click for full article)
ARTICLES and INTERVIEWS
Artist of the Week Interview - Collective 31, Hollie Harding discussing Melting, Shifting, Liquid World and other work
Borough New Music - Composer Outlook: Ailie Robertson - Hollie Harding interviews Ailie Robertson
Borough New Music - Featured Performer: Katherine Clarke - Hollie Harding interviews violist Katherine Clarke
Borough New Music - Spontaneity and Strictness - Composer Outlook: Daryl Runswick - Hollie Harding interviews Daryl Runswick
Borough New Music, Composers Edition Interview with Clare Simmonds and Hollie Harding - Dan Goren, Composers Edition - Interviews Clare Simmonds and Hollie Harding
Borough New Music - Illuminate Women’s Music - Hollie Harding interviews Angela Slater
Preview of Borough New Music Series 9, Guest Artistic Director: Hollie Harding - Dann Chinn, Misfit City
Benjamin Britten Variations - Amy Jolly and Hollie Harding discuss their collaboration in interview with Kezia Davies
Dance and Music Frequencies Interview - Zoi Dimitriou and Hollie Harding discuss their collaboration in interview with John Fosbrook
Boulez - Spontaneity and Strictness - Programme Notes for the Boulez Festival at the Southbank, by Hollie Harding.