Jonathan Bailey Holland’s music has been commissioned and performed by the Alabama, Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland, Colorado, Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Memphis, Minnesota, National, Philadelphia, San Antonio, St. Louis, and South Bend Symphony Orchestras; Auros Group for New Music; Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia; Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies, Greater Baltimore Youth Orchestra; Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia; Orchestra 2001; and Triple Helix; as well as soloists Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Demarre McGill and many others others. Holland has served as Composer-in-Residence with the Boston-based Radius Ensemble, the Ritz Chamber Players, the South Bend Symphony Orchestra – as part of the Music Alive program sponsored by Meet the Composer and the American Symphony Orchestra League, the Plymouth Music Series of Minnesota (currently Vocal Essence) as part of their WITNESS program, and with the Detroit Symphony. 

Holland began studying composition while a student at the Interlochen Arts Academy. Upon graduation from Interlochen, he continued his composition studies with Ned Rorem at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he received a Bachelor of Music degree. He went on to receive a Ph.D. in Music from Harvard University, where his primary teachers were Bernard Rands and Mario Davidovsky. He has also studied with Andrew Imbrie, Yehudi Wyner, Robert Saxton and Robert Sirota. He has received grants, awards and honors from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, American Music Center, Somerville (MA) Arts Council, Massachusetts Cultural Council, ASCAP, the Presser Foundation, Harvard University, and more.

Recent highlights include performances of The Party Starter by the Colorado Symphony, Erie Chamber Orchestra and Chicago Sinfonietta, as well as the premiere of The Clarity of Cold Air by the Radius Ensemble, and a commission from the Left Coast Ensemble for a new work based on the art work of Cornelia Parker. Holland’s music can be heard on recordings by the Cincinnati Symphony, the Detroit Symphony; and upcoming albums by the University of Texas Trombone Choir and by Cleveland Orchestra Trumpeter Jack Sutte.

In addition to teaching at The Boston Conservatory, he is Associate Professor of Composition at the Berklee College of Music, and a founding faculty member in the Low Residency MFA in Music Composition program at Vermont College of Fine Arts.