AARP Bulletin
A Musical Tribute to Medicare
Derwyn Holder writes symphony to show gratitude
by: Steve Mencher | from: | December 2012
Listening to the expressive opening measures of Derwyn Holder's Symphony No. 1, you immediately tune in to the New Jersey composer's influences from the jazz arrangements of Gil Evans to the melody's distinctive leaps and twists, which recall the late reed virtuoso Eric Dolphy. Read entire article
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AllAboutJazz.com
Derwyn Holder / Sue Terry / Ron Naspo: Time Being
By Jack Bowers
"…he uses time and space like a master architect within an always compelling musical framework. …Holder keeps the listener off–balance by never quite taking a melody where one expects it to go; and yet each of his digressions is both logical and persuasive." Read entire article
.................................................
Crain'sNewYorkBusiness.com
A symphony for Medicare
Composer writes piece in gratitude for the care he received.
By Gale Scott, July 22, 2012
As a lifelong working musician and composer, Derwyn Holder, 74, knows the perils of getting big medical bills on an artist's salary. In recent years, Medicare footed the bill for several major medical procedures. In gratitude, Califon, N.J., resident Mr. Holder has penned Symphony No.1/Medicare.
"This is my thank-you to Medicare for the care I got," he said. "It was about $400,000 worth: cardiac procedures, back surgery. I got very sick." He describes his orchestral work as "very harmonic, lots of color." "You could say I'm trying to out-Shostakovich Shostakovich," he said.
It is also his first symphony. "I'm basically a jazz guy," he said, noting that he's cut records on the BMI label and played at clubs like the Blue Note. He has not contacted Medicare officials to tell them of his tribute, but has recently found a publicist and plans to do so. He's also shopping for a large orchestra interested in premiering the work. "This is music to our ears," said a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services spokesman.
A version of this article appeared in the Jul. 22, 2012, print issue of Crain's New York Business.
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Hunterdon County Democrat
Califon composer writes symphony thanking Medicare
Published: Monday, July 16, 2012
A new orchestra work, Symphony No. 1, Medicare, expressing his gratitude for the Medicare program, has just recently been completed by composer, bassist, and pianist N. H. Derwyn Holder. Residing for the last 13 years in rural Hunterdon County, Holder, who is 74, has had numerous medical procedures performed at the Hunterdon Medical Center and the Morristown Medical Center in New Jersey, and
at Doylestown Hospital in Pennsylvania. “I’m filled with gratitude that the assistance that I’ve needed was made available for me through the Medicare program, from the AARP supplemental insurance, and by the fine medical people who have helped me to be here today,” Holder said.
Holder has spent his life in music, residing in the Boston area, Washington, D.C., and New York City areas, performing jazz, composing, and recording with his own group. In August, his Concerto For Classic Guitar and Orchestra is to be performed in Morris Township, NJ, by guitarist Celil Rafik Kaya and the Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey, conducted by Dr. Robert Butts.
Describing the music, Holder says, “This piece is in four movements for full symphony orchestra. It is not descriptive of my medical experiences. Through it I wish to ‘give back,’ not tell a story. The Medicare Symphony is the biggest thing I could do. It is intended to sound as beautiful as I could possibly make it.”
Derwyn Holder composes in both jazz and classical genres. His first performed work, String Quartet No.1, was included in the International Music Festival held in Washington, D.C. It was followed by a reading of his Evolution of a Choral Theme by the National Symphony. Columbia Music Company, owned by renowned guitar master Sophocles Pappas, published Holder’s Sonatina and Six Modern Preludes for guitar. The Sonatina was performed in the U.S, Europe, and South America by Pappas protégé Larry Snitzler. Encouraged by the Washington guitar community, including Snitzler, John Marlow, and Regis Ferruza, Holder completed the first version of his guitar concerto.
Soon afterwards, Holder shifted his focus to his burgeoning jazz career as a bassist, pianist and composer. More than 35 of his compositions have been performed and recorded in the U.S. and Europe, by other musicians, as well.
Laurindo Almeida saw the guitar concerto score and immediately called Holder from Los Angeles, booking him as a bassist for a series of performances on the East Coast, saying “anyone who can write like that, I want to play with.”
During his jazz career, Holder has appeared in New York at the Blue Note, Birdland, Sweet Basil, and Visiones. In D.C., at the Kennedy Center, Blues Alley, Top O’Foolery, Showboat Lounge, One Step Down, Harold’s Rogue & Jar, and King of France Tavern. And in Berlin at the A Trane and the Be Bop.
The composer is currently seeking to arrange a first performance of his Medicare Symphony by enlisting the help and influence of musical colleagues he has worked with during the years. He can be reached by writing to nhderwyn@embarqmail.com.
.................................................
NJ Arts Maven
Youth takes spotlight at BONJ Summer Fest
By Sheila Abrams, August 14, 2012
Youthful energy electrified the air last Sunday at the College of St. Elizabeth in Madison.
The annual week long summer festival of the Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey opened then, with a concert featuring the winners of the 2012 Pearl and Julius Young Music Competition. The four youthful winners got to solo with the orchestra, one of them performing the world premiere of a Guitar Concerto by Derwyn Holder.
It was a heartening event. Sometimes lovers of classical music can get discouraged by the dominance of gray hair in concert audiences. Mozart and Schubert were both in their 30s when they died, but I have occasionally found myself wondering whether there will be an audience for their music in 50 years.
This wonderful concert proved that at least there will be performers for the classics. And the Guitar Concerto encouraged the conviction that there will be new music that someone might want to listen to.
...The high point for me, to my own surprise, was the premiere (“on this planet,” as the composer told me) of the Guitar Concerto by Derwyn Holder, with a young virtuoso of classical guitar, Celil Refik Kaya, as soloist.
I will admit that I often find modern music hard to take. I find what is called minimalism repetitive and boring. And to my ears, atonal music is usually aggressively ugly. Thus I approached the Holder concerto with trepidation. I was very pleasantly surprised.
Maestro Butts pinned it down perfectly when he said it was about texture and color. The music, absent the formal structure of the classical concerti, had a feel of impressionism, the edges soft and subtle. Maybe it is inevitable that guitar music will always have a Spanish flavor for me (even when it’s by Bach). This did. But the clean precision of Kaya’s playing, against the rushing sea of the orchestra, was spectacular and beautiful. It was a privilege to have been there...
.................................................
Medicare Rights Center -Medicare Watch
Your Weekly Medicare Consumer Advocacy Update
Spotlight
Making Medicare musical. That’s what N. H. Derwyn Holder—bassist, pianist and composer—has done with his new orchestral work, Symphony No. 1, Medicare. Holder composed the piece in four movements to express his gratitude for Medicare, which has provided him with health coverage through a series of medical procedures.
First gig
A Musical Tribute to Medicare
Derwyn Holder writes symphony to show gratitude
by: Steve Mencher | from: | December 2012
Listening to the expressive opening measures of Derwyn Holder's Symphony No. 1, you immediately tune in to the New Jersey composer's influences from the jazz arrangements of Gil Evans to the melody's distinctive leaps and twists, which recall the late reed virtuoso Eric Dolphy. Read entire article
.................................................
AllAboutJazz.com
Derwyn Holder / Sue Terry / Ron Naspo: Time Being
By Jack Bowers
"…he uses time and space like a master architect within an always compelling musical framework. …Holder keeps the listener off–balance by never quite taking a melody where one expects it to go; and yet each of his digressions is both logical and persuasive." Read entire article
.................................................
Crain'sNewYorkBusiness.com
A symphony for Medicare
Composer writes piece in gratitude for the care he received.
By Gale Scott, July 22, 2012
As a lifelong working musician and composer, Derwyn Holder, 74, knows the perils of getting big medical bills on an artist's salary. In recent years, Medicare footed the bill for several major medical procedures. In gratitude, Califon, N.J., resident Mr. Holder has penned Symphony No.1/Medicare.
"This is my thank-you to Medicare for the care I got," he said. "It was about $400,000 worth: cardiac procedures, back surgery. I got very sick." He describes his orchestral work as "very harmonic, lots of color." "You could say I'm trying to out-Shostakovich Shostakovich," he said.
It is also his first symphony. "I'm basically a jazz guy," he said, noting that he's cut records on the BMI label and played at clubs like the Blue Note. He has not contacted Medicare officials to tell them of his tribute, but has recently found a publicist and plans to do so. He's also shopping for a large orchestra interested in premiering the work. "This is music to our ears," said a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services spokesman.
A version of this article appeared in the Jul. 22, 2012, print issue of Crain's New York Business.
.................................................
Hunterdon County Democrat
Califon composer writes symphony thanking Medicare
Published: Monday, July 16, 2012
A new orchestra work, Symphony No. 1, Medicare, expressing his gratitude for the Medicare program, has just recently been completed by composer, bassist, and pianist N. H. Derwyn Holder. Residing for the last 13 years in rural Hunterdon County, Holder, who is 74, has had numerous medical procedures performed at the Hunterdon Medical Center and the Morristown Medical Center in New Jersey, and
at Doylestown Hospital in Pennsylvania. “I’m filled with gratitude that the assistance that I’ve needed was made available for me through the Medicare program, from the AARP supplemental insurance, and by the fine medical people who have helped me to be here today,” Holder said.
Holder has spent his life in music, residing in the Boston area, Washington, D.C., and New York City areas, performing jazz, composing, and recording with his own group. In August, his Concerto For Classic Guitar and Orchestra is to be performed in Morris Township, NJ, by guitarist Celil Rafik Kaya and the Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey, conducted by Dr. Robert Butts.
Describing the music, Holder says, “This piece is in four movements for full symphony orchestra. It is not descriptive of my medical experiences. Through it I wish to ‘give back,’ not tell a story. The Medicare Symphony is the biggest thing I could do. It is intended to sound as beautiful as I could possibly make it.”
Derwyn Holder composes in both jazz and classical genres. His first performed work, String Quartet No.1, was included in the International Music Festival held in Washington, D.C. It was followed by a reading of his Evolution of a Choral Theme by the National Symphony. Columbia Music Company, owned by renowned guitar master Sophocles Pappas, published Holder’s Sonatina and Six Modern Preludes for guitar. The Sonatina was performed in the U.S, Europe, and South America by Pappas protégé Larry Snitzler. Encouraged by the Washington guitar community, including Snitzler, John Marlow, and Regis Ferruza, Holder completed the first version of his guitar concerto.
Soon afterwards, Holder shifted his focus to his burgeoning jazz career as a bassist, pianist and composer. More than 35 of his compositions have been performed and recorded in the U.S. and Europe, by other musicians, as well.
Laurindo Almeida saw the guitar concerto score and immediately called Holder from Los Angeles, booking him as a bassist for a series of performances on the East Coast, saying “anyone who can write like that, I want to play with.”
During his jazz career, Holder has appeared in New York at the Blue Note, Birdland, Sweet Basil, and Visiones. In D.C., at the Kennedy Center, Blues Alley, Top O’Foolery, Showboat Lounge, One Step Down, Harold’s Rogue & Jar, and King of France Tavern. And in Berlin at the A Trane and the Be Bop.
The composer is currently seeking to arrange a first performance of his Medicare Symphony by enlisting the help and influence of musical colleagues he has worked with during the years. He can be reached by writing to nhderwyn@embarqmail.com.
.................................................
NJ Arts Maven
Youth takes spotlight at BONJ Summer Fest
By Sheila Abrams, August 14, 2012
Youthful energy electrified the air last Sunday at the College of St. Elizabeth in Madison.
The annual week long summer festival of the Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey opened then, with a concert featuring the winners of the 2012 Pearl and Julius Young Music Competition. The four youthful winners got to solo with the orchestra, one of them performing the world premiere of a Guitar Concerto by Derwyn Holder.
It was a heartening event. Sometimes lovers of classical music can get discouraged by the dominance of gray hair in concert audiences. Mozart and Schubert were both in their 30s when they died, but I have occasionally found myself wondering whether there will be an audience for their music in 50 years.
This wonderful concert proved that at least there will be performers for the classics. And the Guitar Concerto encouraged the conviction that there will be new music that someone might want to listen to.
...The high point for me, to my own surprise, was the premiere (“on this planet,” as the composer told me) of the Guitar Concerto by Derwyn Holder, with a young virtuoso of classical guitar, Celil Refik Kaya, as soloist.
I will admit that I often find modern music hard to take. I find what is called minimalism repetitive and boring. And to my ears, atonal music is usually aggressively ugly. Thus I approached the Holder concerto with trepidation. I was very pleasantly surprised.
Maestro Butts pinned it down perfectly when he said it was about texture and color. The music, absent the formal structure of the classical concerti, had a feel of impressionism, the edges soft and subtle. Maybe it is inevitable that guitar music will always have a Spanish flavor for me (even when it’s by Bach). This did. But the clean precision of Kaya’s playing, against the rushing sea of the orchestra, was spectacular and beautiful. It was a privilege to have been there...
.................................................
Medicare Rights Center -Medicare Watch
Your Weekly Medicare Consumer Advocacy Update
Spotlight
Making Medicare musical. That’s what N. H. Derwyn Holder—bassist, pianist and composer—has done with his new orchestral work, Symphony No. 1, Medicare. Holder composed the piece in four movements to express his gratitude for Medicare, which has provided him with health coverage through a series of medical procedures.
First gig
