Scott Holden

Dr. Scott Holden holds music degrees from the University of Michigan, Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School where he was a recipient of the Horowitz Prize. Studying for a year at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, he was a Fulbright Scholar. He is the currently on the piano faculty at Brigham Young University where is director of the piano area. His performances have received wide praise. “...Few are the live performances which bring out, build, and shape this work as artistically as in this live performance....Mr. Holden sizzled the audience....” (The Detroit Monitor)

Holden is active as a soloist, collaborator and teacher. He has performed in over forty states, as well as Canada, Mexico, England, Belgium, Holland, Russia, Italy, Germany, France, Austria, Hungary, China, Singapore, and Vietnam. Holden’s performances and recitals have been broadcast on NPR, NBC, the CBC, as well as numerous performances on local networks. He is a member of the American Piano Quartet with whom he has made many international tours. Recent and upcoming performances include solo, concerto, and chamber concerts from throughout the US ranging from Alaska to New York, as well as in Singapore, China, and Switzerland. In 2017 and 2018 he has been performing Rachmaninov’s complete Op. 39 Etude Tableaux. He will play a solo recital in Carnegie Hall in June of 2018 that will include several world premieres.

He has recorded for Parma, Bridge, and Tantara Records. His newest CD, Beyond Vernon Duke was given a five-star (highest) rating and praised: “Holden exhibits profoundly musical readings with obvious commitment and great attention to detail.” Fanfare magazine stated: “Scott Holden plays these pieces with obvious commitment…and limpid lyricism…. he tackles the keyboard acrobatics fearlessly.”

A prizewinner in numerous piano competitions, his 1996 Carnegie Hall debut recital was a result of winning first prize in the 1996 Leschetizky New York Debut Piano Competition. The New York Concert Review then wrote: “He is a pianist in the ‘effortless technique category’…..he displayed beautiful tone, sound technique and the ability to transform notes on a page into a distinctly personal statement..” He has also performed at the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall and Moscow’s Svetlanov Hall. With his interest in contemporary music, he has premiered numerous works including William Wallace’s 2nd piano concerto, which he performed with the Utah Symphony under Keith Lockhart. The Salt Lake Tribune wrote “Mr. Holden secured the stage in a virtuosic performance….We were torn between examining every new note passing by our ears, and Holden’s pianistic acrobatics. It was a wonderful dilemma.”

He has adjudicated and given master classes at festivals and pedagogy workshops across the country. Dr. Holden’s students have been top prizewinners in numerous regional and national competitions including MTNA and the Gina Bachauer. His students have been accepted to the leading graduate programs in the nation. Dr. Holden has repeatedly been on the piano faculty of SummerArts with Juilliard, in Geneva, Switzerland, and has been faculty of the American Piano Forum festival in Pennsylvania. When time allows, he is a tireless explorer of Utah’s red rock canyons with his wife and four children.