Violinist Holly Workman is a passionate educator and performer whose work focuses on expanding the traditional canon and amplifying diverse voices. Her work spans the western classical canon, contemporary music, improvisation and experimental forms, as well as popular styles. In recent years, she has premiered over 100 works and developed a program of introducing contemporary music to violin students of all ages.
Holly has an active career as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player. She often performs with various traditional and contemporary music groups such as Ensemble Modern, Glass Clouds Ensemble, Ensemble United Berlin, MIVOS Quartet, and others. During her time working with Ensemble Modern in Germany, she premiered and recorded Heiner Goebbels “House of Call,” which was the winner of the 2022 German Record Prize in contemporary music and crossover production. Holly is currently a member of the Kodheli Quartet, an experimental string quartet performing on electric instruments. In 2022, she founded the Orange Road Quartet which focused on working with young composers and creating interdisciplinary projects with visual artists and dancers. The quartet served as the Cuker and Stern Quartet in Residence at the Mannes School of Music during the 2024-2025 season, coached by the JACK Quartet.
Holly currently holds multiple orchestral positions including serving as the Concertmaster of the Palmetto Opera, Associate Concertmaster/Concertmaster of the Aiken Symphony, and Associate Concertmaster of the South Carolina Ballet Orchestra. As a soloist, she has performed with the Hershey Symphony, OSSIA Ensemble, USC Symphony, and the Aiken Symphony. She was the winner of the Cortona Sessions Contemporary Music Competition in 2024 and a finalist in the 2026 George and Elizabeth Gregory Concerto Competition performing Saariaho’s Graal Theatre.
Her recent performances have taken her to Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), June in Buffalo (New York), the 180º Laboratory for Innovative Art (Bulgaria), the New Mexico Chamber Music Festival, Klangspuren Schwaz (Austria), LOUD Weekend 2019 (New York), Holland Festival at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Musikfest Berlin at the Philharmonie Berlin (Germany), Unerhörte Musik (Germany), Carnegie Hall, Philharmonie de Paris (France), and Lincoln Center.
As an educator, Holly has given workshops, masterclasses, and performances for string and composition students at Duke University, University of Florida, University of California – Davis, and the Academy of Arts in Osijek, Croatia. Her doctoral research focused on the pedagogy of contemporary music and developing a method to introduce contemporary music and techniques to violin students from the very beginner level to expand the canon and diversify the teaching repertoire. Holly has been on faculty at several music schools and festivals and will be joining the faculty at Point CounterPoint in the summer of 2026.
Holly is a passionate advocate for community engagement and teaching artistry. She has worked for Mozart for Munchkins, ROCmusic, Music for Everyone, and participated in outreach programs with the Eastman School of Music and University of South Carolina. Holly has also developed outreach presentations focused on both traditional and contemporary music in the US and abroad, including a program for special needs students in Frankfurt, Germany introducing graphic notation.
Holly received her Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the University of South Carolina, where she served as the Teaching Assistant to Dr. Ari Streisfeld and taught violin and chamber music. She received a Professional Studies Diploma from the Mannes School of Music, was a Violin Fellow in the International Ensemble Modern Academy, and received a Master of Music in Contemporary Performance from the Frankfurt Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst (Germany). In addition, she completed a Master of Music and a Bachelor of Music with high distinction at the Eastman School of Music.