bio

Holly Gowland originates from Manchester, UK and currently resides in Birmingham, UK. Within her compositions, blending acoustic and electronic sounds and tuning into the environment is paramount. She often builds new technologies to facilitate harmonic blending and highlight spectromorphology. Her work usually consists of field recordings and draws special attention to spatial aspects. Holly has won the Peter Redfearn Prize for Composition, the John Mayer Prize, the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Composition Prize and Musicians' Union Bill Warman Award for the most promising instrument performer or music writer. Gowland has also received the McQueen Bursary, Carole Emery Scholarship and Ida Carroll Scholarship. 

Gowland has just finished studying BMus Composition at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire supervised by Andrew Hamilton, Emma Margetson, Seán Clancy and Joe Wright. During her undergraduate studies, her pieces have been premiered at The Hippodrome, Centrala and Bradshaw Hall. She has received commissions from NMC (New Music Cassette), Molly Welling in partnership with the University of Birmingham, Naomi Sullivan in partnership with Yamaha for the International Saxophone Festival, and Toby Kearney. Gowland is currently working with Oliver Lee and Royal College of Music on a saxophone ensemble piece, which will be performed late 2023.

Holly has been featured in a PRXLUDES article and she was featured on a radio station in Milwaukee in 2022 alongside her free improvisation group. 

She is the co-found of Electra Music, which promotes electronic music and production for women.

On the side of composing, she is a classically trained double bassist who has performed with orchestras and experimental groups at venues such as Centrala, Bridgewater Hall, Philharmonic Hall Liverpool and Symphony Hall Birmingham.