"I don't know that I would have had the courage or the foolishness, depending on one's perspective, to pursue [composition]... without Andrew's nudging," says Steven Holochwost, who music Andrew Koehler conducts on the new release Dialogues and Meditations by the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra. He and Koehler, professor of music at Kalamazoo College and music director of the Kalamazoo Philharmonia and the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra, join Cara Lieurance for a conversation about the project.
The album, Dialogues and Meditations: The Orchestral Music of Steven Holochwost (2024, Albany Records) features five of Holochwost's works, including a piece originally composed as a violin sonata movement during the years Koehler and Holochwost were roommates at Yale University. It's called the Shenandoah Rhapsody for solo violin & string orchestra.
Koehler described Holochwost's music as "always grasping at beauty but also is never simple-minded," with a complexity that invites listeners to "dig deeper." The recording was made in Germany with members of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra, a particularly meaningful collaboration for Koehler, who has strong ties to Ukraine and is a fluent speaker of the language.
Holochwost, whose primary profession is as a developmental psychologist, touched upon the challenges of contemporary composers in getting their music performed and how his work is deeply informed by his love of music.
The album is now available on many platforms, including Albany Records.