Alison Holden - Répétiteur
Alison Holden, born in Christchurch, completed her Bachelor of Music degree in Musicology from the University of Canterbury, before turning to specialise in performance piano. This led her to continue her music studies at Victoria University of Wellington, coming under the tutelage of one of New Zealand’s foremost piano teachers, Judith Clark. During her three years there, Alison gained a first class honours degree, a postgraduate diploma, and the Fellowship of the Trinity College of Music.
In 1997, Alison moved to the United Kingdom to commence her postgraduate performance piano studies at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD), with the international concert pianist Graham Scott. There she was awarded a Masters degree in solo performance piano and the Certificate of Postgraduate Studies. While studying, she was employed part-time as a teacher at the RSAMD.
Alison has extensive musical experience, working professionally as a concert pianist, giving many recitals as soloist, chamber musician, repetiteur and accompanist with many different instrumental soloists and singers. She has been a regular solo artist at the Durham International Concert Series in northeast England, and was an artist at the Thy International Chamber Music Festival in Denmark. She has performed in Croatia and Australia, and has appeared as soloist with various orchestras, including a performance of Prokofiev's 1st piano concerto with the RSAMD orchestra. Alison has recorded for Concert FM and has performed in many Masterclasses, directed by such notable international pianists as Dmitri Alexeev, Boris Berman, Charles Rosen, Joanna MacGregor, Martino Tirimo, Arturo Pizzaro, Philip Fowke and Michael Houstoun. Alison is a member of the Whēkau Trio with two professional musicians in Auckland, and in 2018 they performed in the World Saxophone Congress in Zagreb, Croatia.
Some of the scholarships and awards that Alison has received include: the T.G. More Scholarship for Piano, the Peter Lindsay Miller Prize for Piano Duo from the RSAMD, a Creative New Zealand Professional Development Scholarship, a Trust Bank Canterbury Arts Excellence Award, the Marion Rayward Memorial Scholarship in Music, a Victoria University of Wellington Graduate Award, the Fanny McDonald Piano Recital Competition, and the Bernadette Richardson Memorial Trust Award.
Over the last few years, Alison has worked with New Zealand Opera (and prior to that, Southern Opera) as a répétiteur and accompanist for opera rehearsals and in concert. She has worked with the National Youth Choir on a number of occasions, and played for some Showbiz Canterbury shows. She has been an accompanist with the University of Canterbury, Burnside High School, St. Andrews College and other schools around Christchurch, and is a tutor of chamber music – including coaching groups into the National finals. She is also the South Island pianist for the New Zealand Male Choir. The rest of her time has been devoted to developing a busy private teaching practice.