Steinway & Sons Fundraiser – HOLT

Dr. Joseph Holt enjoys a wide-ranging musical career as conductor, pianist, chamber musician, arts administrator, educator and arranger. This is his 13^th season as Artistic Director for the Choral Artists of Sarasota, Sarasota’s professional choral ensemble. Under his leadership, the organization has grown and garnered accolades for its innovative programming and superior vocal quality. Dr. Holt is also the producer and host for the Sarasota Institute of Lifetime Learning (SILL). Music Mondays during the winter months and has occasionally delivered the pre-concert lecture for the Sarasota Orchestra. The Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota recognized his achievements in the arts with the Artistic Achievement Award in 2017.

Dr. Holt served more than twenty years as the principal pianist with the United States Army Chorus in Washington, D.C. performing for U.S. Presidents, dignitaries from around the world and military officials. He produced a series of multi piano concerts for The US Army Band featuring ten pianists and five concert grand pianos, and performed with the Band and Chorus throughout the United States.

As a pianist, Dr. Holt has been awarded numerous prices, included the Brahms Award from Wolf Trap, and his appearances in recital and with orchestras in North America, Europe and the Middle East have elicited acclaim from audiences and critics alike. Unusual highlights of his musical career include coordinating and conducting the Filene Center Orchestra for a gala performance featuring premier comedian, Victor Borge at Wolf Trap; compiling and directing the music for Prodigy, a children’s play about Mozart at the Kennedy Center, performing with soprano, Jessye Norman at the base of the Hoover Dam, and assisting in the development of the National Music Conservatory in Amman, Jordan. He holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Shenandoah Conservatory and the Catholic University of America.