Kevin B. Holland, Choral Director
2008: Allen Symphony Chorus names Kevin B. Holland as Choral Director
Kevin B. Holland is the Minister of Music at Suncreek United Methodist Church in Allen, TX where he oversees a broadly-based music ministry including choirs and instrumental ensembles for preschool children through adults. A native of North Carolina, Mr. Holland holds the Bachelor of Arts degree in percussion performance and conducting from Elon University in Elon, NC along with additional graduate studies at Westminster Choir College (Princeton, NJ) and Shenandoah Conservatory (Winchester, VA). He has studied conducting with James Jordan and Joseph Flummerfelt (Westminster Choir College) and Robert Shafer (Shenandoah Conservatory) and has held music ministry positions in North Carolina, Colorado, and Virginia since 1979.
As a part of his work at Suncreek UMC, Mr. Holland is the founding director of Cantate, a choir for students in grades six through twelve that has grown to over one hundred members in only three years. Cantate maintains an active music ministry throughout the year by leading in worship every Sunday along with the presentation of two fully-staged musicals each year. This choir also undertakes an annual tour and has presented concerts throughout western Texas and New Mexico along with the Midwestern and Eastern United States including such notable venues as the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, NY and the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. The choir recently traveled to the Czech Republic for its first international tour singing in Prague and five other Czech cities.
While serving as the Director of Music Ministries at First Presbyterian Church in Concord, NC, Mr. Holland managed an endowed, community concert series that included performances by the church’s ensembles as well as local, regional and national artists including members of the Charlotte Symphony, the Tokyo String Quartet and the male vocal ensemble Chanticleer. In June of 2002 the church’s Sanctuary Choir was featured in the premiere performance of Paul Basler’s Missa Kenya at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC with the composer performing as French horn soloist.
Over his career Mr. Holland’s choirs have performed choral masterworks with orchestra such as the Requiem by Mozart, Brahms, Faure and Durufle, Handel’s Messiah, the Christmas Oratorio by J.S. Bach and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis.
During a five-year period in which he served as Minister of Music at University Baptist Church in Charlottesville, VA, Mr. Holland was the conductor of Jubilate, a fifty-voice auditioned choir for students at the University of Virginia. This choir undertook an annual tour and presented concerts throughout the United States including performances in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, NY and the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. The group was also featured in a segment of the nationally televised The Joy of Music with organist Diane Bish.
In addition to Mr. Holland’s active teaching and conducting schedule, he is increasingly in demand as a clinician in the areas of choral music, handbells, African drumming and the use of multi-cultural and ethnic music in worship. He also serves as the President of the Dallas Chapter of Choristers Guild and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Cross Timbers Youth Orchestra.
