American composer Dr. Aaron Holloway-Nahum (b. 1983) has firmly established himself as a pillar of the UK’s contemporary music scene. While his compositional career is formidable on its own—commissions include the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Third Coast Percussion—his most meaningful work combines his compositional knowledge with a variety of additional skills, through which he leads an award-winning career as a recording engineer, conductor, and arts entrepreneur. Most prominently in this regard, Aaron serves as the conductor, Chief Executive, and Artistic Director of the Riot Ensemble, an organization that has raised more than £800,000 towards the performance of contemporary music and premiered over 300 original works.

Aaron’s music has been performed in nearly twenty countries across four continents, and is characterized by its experimental narrative structures, detailed and ornate timbres, bold melodic unisons, and a growing interest in multimedia. Upcoming premieres include works for soloist Ivo Nilsson and Gageego!, soloist Emily Levin and Northwestern University’s Contemporary Music Ensemble and the Distat Terra Festival. Selected as one of just two composers for the Peter Eötvös Foundation inaugural mentorship class, Holloway-Nahum has held a variety of fellowships over the past decade, including Tanglewood, Bang on a Can, Aspen, Cheltenham, a Copland House Residency, and many more. Notable past performances of his music include the Pannon Philharmonic Orchestra (Hungary), Plural Ensemble (Madrid), and a full-length film score recorded at Abbey Film Road. 

The long hours at Abbey Road sparked a fervent interest—and secondary career—in audio recording and production for Aaron. (He remarked once in an interview that “the way you listen as a recording engineer improves your conducting and your composing.”) As the managing director and engineer for Coviello Music Productions, Aaron produces roughly a dozen albums per year of Europe and the United States’ premier ensembles; his clientele includes the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Arditti Quartet, Sandbox Percussion, and Adam Swayne, whose solo album of American Piano music “Speak to Me” was nominated in two categories for the prestigious Opus Klassik Awards in Germany.