Bio:

As a compelling performer and composer with a delicate yet expansive style, Holly McMahon studies and works as a multi-faceted musician based in Boulder, Colorado. Throughout her life, she has worked with countless artists across several mediums, including film, theater, dance, and performance art. She continues to explore the use of new instrumentations and genres through her studies of music composition, music technology, and piano performance at The University of Colorado, Boulder. She is most well known for her works for solo piano, which typically feature carefully sculpted, running lines and evocative yet comfortable rhythmic textures that have been described as “lush” and “uniquely vibrant”. McMahon is also known for absurdist works, exploring providing an unconventional take on ordinary occurrences. As she creates atmosphere and dimension in her writing, McMahon’s music is uniquely vibrant and breathtaking, reminding listeners how beautiful, vulnerable, and humorous it is to be a human experiencing art.

Performances of Composed Works

  • To Climb a Mountain (for piano trio and ballet dancers)

    • 2024, The Lincoln Center, Magnolia Theatre, Fort Collins, CO

  • There are Hints of Juniper in the Sky After it Rains (for solo piano) 

    • New Music on the Point 2024 - PointCounterpoint, Leicester, VT

  • NAKT (for solo fujara)

    • 2024, TANK Center for Sonic Arts, Rangely, CO

  • The Earthworm Problem (for Soprano, Mezzo Soprano, Tenor, and Baritone Soloists, and piano accompaniment) 

    • Composers Fellowship Initiative, New Opera Workshop Performance 2024 - Imig Music Building, Boulder, CO

  • Anyone (for choir)

    • Renova New Music Choir Spring Recital - Imig Music Building, Boulder, CO

  • The Pancake Opera (for soprano and piano accompaniment) 

    • Sophomore Recital 2024 - Imig Music Building, Boulder, CO

  • Eight Miniatures (for piano) 

    • CU Boulder Mu Phi Epsilon Banquet, 2024 - Imig Music Building, Boulder, CO

  • All the Shades of Pomegranate (for piano)

    • commissioned and performed by Indigo Farmer at her Senior Recital in Piano Performance, 2023 - Imig Music Building, Boulder, CO

  • Contradictions Parts I and II (for body percussion duet) 

    • CU SoundWorks, 2023 - Imig Music Building, Boulder, CO

  • Arrangement of Joe Pass’ Dissonance for live, black box theater production of The Giving Tree by Shell Silverstein

    • Private Production, 2022 - Denver East High School, Denver, CO