Leonie Joyce Holmes (born 1962) is a New Zealand composer and lecturer at the University of Auckland with an interest in music education.

Early life and education

Holmes was born in Auckland in 1962.^[1][2] She began learning piano at age six and attended Pakuranga College. She studied at the University of Auckland from 1981 to 1985, graduating with MMus in composition.^[2] Her teachers were Douglas Mews, John Rimmer and John Elmsly.^[2]

She played the violin in the Auckland Youth Orchestra.^[2]

Career

In 1983–1985 Holmes attended the Nelson Young Composers' Workshops and was its first composer-in-residence in 1986.^[2] In 1989 she took up a position of Composer-in-Schools working in several Auckland schools.^[2][3] She has been Composer-in-Residence with the Auckland Philharmonia in 1997 and with the Manukau Symphony Orchestra in 2005.^[3] In 2001 she received the Philip Neill Memorial Prize in Composition from the University of Otago.

Holmes has an interest in music education and has written for schools and community groups.^[3] She writes for orchestras, chamber groups, choirs, solo voice and instruments, and her works have been performed internationally.^[3]

Holmes has written a number of works on commission.^[3] For Just a Little Moment was commissioned by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and premiered by the orchestra during a COVID-19 lockdown in November 2020.^[4] Holmes's Piano Concerto was commissioned by the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra who performed its first public premiere in October 2023. It had been recorded earlier by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.^[5][6]

As at 2021 she is a senior lecturer in composition at the University of Auckland.^[7]

Selected works

• Nonette for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn and string quartet (1984)
• Fantasia II for piano (1986)
• Four epigrams: for mandolin ensemble (1987)
• Recitative II for viola and percussion (1991)
• The estuary: for SSA choir and piano (1993) – words: A.R.D. Fairburn
• Colloquium: two flutes and guitar (1993)
• Seconds: for string orchestra (1994)
• Three songs for baritone and piano (1997)
• Chorale for brass sextet (1997)
• Silver whispers: choral suite in five movements (2004) – words: Marnie Barrell
• Tango mangle: for orchestra (2007)
• The fourth station: for solo cello (2008)
• Fanfare for Manukau: for orchestra (2008)
• Through coiled stillness (2011) – text: Leonie Holmes and Robert Wiremu
• Nocturne for solo piano (2011)
• A tedious brief scene, Bottom's dance (2011)
• Solstice (2013)
• Land pictures: for women's voices and harp (2015) – words: Anne Powell
• Where the tui sings three notes (2015) – text: Tessa Stephens
• Whim: for orchestra (2015)
• Ritual: for wind quintet (2016)
• Fragment II: for string quartet (2016)
• Dance of the Wintersmith: for violin and piano (2017)
• Murmuration: for three violins (2019)
• For Just a Little Moment (2020)^[4]
• Piano Concerto (2022)