Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland: Composers

Photo: John Cooney

Michael Holohan
(b. 1956)

'“For he had gone alone into the island
And brought back the whole thing.
The house throbbed like his full violin.”
(Seamus Heaney)

“See everything through music -
those chords yet to resound
in you, swim like fish
in all the rivers of the world
You love their playful surge,
their shadows flickering deep within you.”
(Susan Connolly)'

Michael Holohan
•	Biography
•	Compositions by date
•	Compositions by category
	•	Orchestral
	•	Ensemble
	•	Solo instrumental
	•	Vocal and choral
	•	Band
	•	Electro-acoustic and mixed media
•	CDs/scores for sale
•	Related reading / video
•	High-resolution image available
•	Printable profile [PDF 131K]

Born in Dublin in 1956, Michael Holohan was educated at University College Dublin, the Dublin College of Music and Queen’s University, Belfast. He has won numerous prizes for his compositions as well as Arts Council travel awards to attend masterclasses with Messiaen, Boulez, Xenakis, Berio and Lachenmann in France.

His music has been performed both in Ireland and abroad, and has been broadcast by RTÉ, BBC and other international networks. His orchestral works ‘Cromwell’ (1994),’ Building Bridges’ (1995), ‘Leaves of Glass’ (1995) and ‘The Lost Land’ (1996) have all been premiered by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. He has collaborated regularly with well known Irish poets such as Seamus Heaney, Richard Murphy, Dermot Healy and Paul Durcan. ‘Running Beast’, his collaboration with the playwright Donal O’ Kelly toured Ireland and Europe extensively during 2007 as part of the government’s 400th Commemoration of the Flight of the Earls. He is a former chairman of The Association of Irish Composers and the Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda. In 1999 he was elected to Aosdána, Ireland’s state-sponsored academy of creative artists.

(biography © Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland)