The BBC National Orchestra of Wales is please to announce the new Composer in Association is British composer Simon Holt. He will take up his position at this years proms where he will premiere his new piece 'Troubled Light'. This will be, in fact the first of three commissions he will write for us over the next five years. Additionally, he will provide a short piece for the opening Festival at Hoddinott Hall.

Simon Holt was born in Bolton, Lancashire in 1958. After completing a foundation course at Bolton Art College, he went on to study composition for four years with Anthony Gilbert at the Royal Northen College of Music in Manchester. He is a Fellow of the University of Bolton.

Holt first came to prominence as the featured composer of the 1985 Bath International Festival. As a young composer he was also taken up by the late Michael Vyner, then artistic director of the London Sinfonietta, who commissioned Kites (1983) and Ballad of the Black Sorrow (1988). Holt's relationship with the London Sinfonietta has continued ever since then, with a steady stream of performances and premieres, including his most recent large-scale piece: Suenos (2007) for baritone and ensemble, performed by Roderick Williams and the London Sinfonietta in London and Mandrid.

Simon Holt's output for the chamber ensemble is large, including seven pieces written for the Nash Ensemble. The first of four of these: Shadow Realm, Sparrownight,...era madrugada and Canciones have been recorded by Nash on the NMC label.

More recently, Holt has developed a hugely successful relationship with Birmingham Contempoary Music Group, who recorded a second portrait CD on the NMC label, released in 2004.

Holt has twice been commissioned to write major orchestra pieces for the BBC Proms - in 1987 he completed Syrensong for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, later followed by the viola concerto Wallking with the River's Roar, premiered by Nobuko Imai and the BBC Philharmonic in 1992.

Simon Holt finds his inspiration from, amongst others, the world of Greek myth. His Icarus Trilogy culminated in 1995 with the premiere of his cello concerto Daedalus Remembers, commissioned by the Cheltenham festival for Rohan de Saram and Sinfonia 21 conducted by Daniel Harding. In addition, he feels a great affinity for the writing of Federico Garcia Lorca, whose dark, passionate and enigmatic texts have much in common with Holt's own sound world. He has set Lorca's texts in his song cycle Canciones and his first opera The Nightingale is to Blame. This was a commission from Opera North, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and the Munich Biennale, and the premiere formed the focal point of a major retrospective at the 1998 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.

Simon Holt's soprano and orchestra piece "Sunrise' yellow noise "(2000) for the city of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Lisa Milne under Sir Simon Rattle went on to tour the Cologne Triennale in May 2000, and was the subject of a one hour TV documentary. In 2001 Simon Holt recieved Le Prix de la Fondation Prince Pieree, Monaco for this piece.

"Sunrise' yellow noise" is the first part of the cycle "a ribbon of time" which encompasses five works of various genre based on poems by Emily Dickenson. The other four works are Two Movements for string quartet (2001), which recieved the Royal Philharnmonic Society Award in 2002; Boots of Lead (2002) for alto and ensemble, which was premiered by BCMG, Rinat Shaham and Sir Simon Rattle in October 2002 and recieved the Ivor Novello Classical Music Award; Clandestiny (2000) for soprano and organ; and Startled Grass (2001) for female voices and cello.

The music theatre piece, Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm?, commissioned by Almeida Aldeburge Opera, was performed around the UK in 2003 to huge acclaim and judged Best Stage Work at the 2004 British Composer Awards. It led to a number of 'spin off' pieces - The Coroner's report (2004) for ensemble, The Other Side of Silence (2004) for flute, viola and harp, and The Sharp End of Night (2005) for solo violin.

Holt's recent large - scale pieces include the violin concerto witness to a snow miracle, performed in London and Bonn by Vivianne Hager and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and judged Best Orchestral Work at the 2006 British Composer Awards. He is currently on a percussion concerto for Colin Currie entitled " a table of noises" to be premiered by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in May 2008.