MICHAEL HOLLAND
Winner
of BackStage Magazine's 2006 Ira Eaker Special Achievement
Award ("outstanding performer/songwriter on the rise"),
NYC-based Michael Holland is equally at home in the musical
worlds of rock/pop, cabaret, and theater. As creepy as that
looks on paper, it is no less true. Originally from
Southeastern Connecticut, Holland was a fixture on the
Northeast singer / songwriter circuit during the '90s. He
went on to form the trio Comfortable Shoes, who released
one CD (produced, arranged, and co-written by Holland), and
performed coast-to-coast from San Francisco to Carnegie
Hall. In 2001 his third solo CD, the electronica-fueled
"Darkness Falls," garnered a Blockbuster/MP3 Award for
Favorite Male Performer - Rock. His fourth, 2004's "Beach
Toys Won't Save You," nabbed the OutMusic Award for
Songwriter of the Year. An in-demand studio musician and
vocalist with a four-octave range, Holland has had many of
his songs performed and/or recorded by people you've
probably never heard of, but the checks cleared.
As musical director/arranger, Holland has worked with many
of NYC's top cabaret performers, sixteen of whom were
featured in an evening of his original music, entitled
"Mikey Writes It!" (MAC Award, Best Revue, 2003.) In 2004,
Holland penned music and lyrics for "Believe in Me...a
Bigfoot musical," cited by the New York Times as the #1
show to see at FringeNYC, out of 200 productions presented.
He also arranged and performed the world premiere of
"Another Day in the Modern World," which appeared on "The
Maury Yeston Songbook," released by psclassics. He has
provided arrangements for the New York City Gay Men's
Chorus, incidental music for "Crazy Mary" (Playwrights
Horizons), "Intimate Apparel" (Juilliard), "Starstruck"
(Rattlestick Theatre) and "Sand" (Provincetown Rep), and
scored the animated short "Cabbage Boy."
Recent projects include orchestrations/vocal arrangements
for the recent Broadway revival of "Godspell", original
music for "Arsenic and Old Lace" at Dallas Theater Center
(starring Betty Buckley and Tovah Feldshuh), musical
direction for the 2010 Drama Desk Awards (hosted by Patti
LuPone), original compositions for productions of "Much Ado
About Nothing” and "Othello" at Houston’s prestigious Alley
Theatre, "The Servant of Two Masters" at The Colorado
Shakespeare Festival (both dir. by Scott Schwartz), the
current Hole•O•Matic incarnation, and an original,
full-length musical based on the Great Hurricane of 1938.
Titled "Hurricane", Michael's original musical was selected
as one of only 30 new works presented as part of the 2009
New York Musical Theater Festival from more than 450 shows
submitted, and won awards for direction, composition, and
overall production design.
www.michaelholland.com
"...Michael
Holland, the jack-of-all-musical skills who popped up not
that long ago on the cabaret scene to introduce many new,
often rock-oriented ideas.... So far, no one's been able to
figure out anything the fellow can't do!" D. Finkle -- The
Village Voice