Jonathan Bailey Holland Named Dean of Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music

The renowned composer comes to the role from the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music

Northwestern University in Illinois recently announced a new Dean of its Bienen School of Music in Jonathan Bailey Holland. Alongside twenty years' experience in music education leadership, Holland is also an award-winning composer and will become the Kay Davis Professor of Music.

Holland’s music has been commissioned and performed by orchestras and leading contemporary ensembles all over the world — including the Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit and National Symphony Orchestras, Eighth Blackbird, Awadagin Pratt, Roomful of Teeth, the BBC Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Odyssey Opera, Orchestra 2001, the Westerlies, and more.

After receiving his doctorate from Harvard University, Holland helped to establish a new MFA program in composition at Vermont College of Fine Arts. He then went on to the Berklee College of Music, where he rose to full professor, and from there was eventually appointed chair of composition at the newly-merged Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

Bailey comes to Northwestern from his current role as Head of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music.

"I look forward to joining the passionate and committed artists and scholars of the Bienen School of Music," Holland said. "The school has maintained a highly respected position of prominence in the field for many years."

"Its dedicated and uniquely talented students and faculty, impressive facilities, broad range of performance opportunities and connection to the broader University make it a unique and exciting community to join at this moment in time."

"The Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music is renowned for its conservatory-level training and scholarship, and for producing some of the world’s great musical performers," said Michael Schill, the president of Northwestern University.

"I look forward to working with Jonathan Bailey Holland to further elevate the prominence of this great school in the Chicago area and on the international stage."