About Holly Chatham

Holly Chatham is a performer of wide range and skill, sought after for her continuo and improvisational skills on early keyboards as well as her virtuosity on the modern piano. An "elegantly florid" (San Francisco Classical Voice) player and a "leader in the field" (Counterpoint), Ms. Chatham is hailed as possessing "a wonderful improvisational flair" (Atlanta Early Music News) on the keyboard. She has played under directors such as Masaaki Suzuki, Simon Carrington, James O'Donnell, Simon Halsey, Jane Glover, Jos van Immerseel, Paul Hillier, Stanley Ritchie, Andrew Megill, Paul Goodwin and Patrick Gardner, and in major concert halls and series throughout the U.S., U.K. and Mexico, including such venues as Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. She has been a feature performer in festivals such as the Ugbrooke Chamber Music Festival (UK), Indianapolis Early Music Festival, Bloomington Early Music Festival, Miami Bach Festival, Festival Dr. Alfonso Ortiz Tirado (Mexico), Festival San Luis (Mexico), Musica Viva Festival, Music in the Vineyards in Napa Valley, and Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. Each summer, Ms. Chatham is a keyboardist in the five-week Carmel Bach Festival (CA). She was Artistic Co-Director and harpsichordist for the critically-acclaimed ensemble Reconstruction from 2002 to 2010, performing works of the Baroque as well as new commissions. Past seasons found Reconstruction performing in such venues as the Lane Series at University of Vermont, Hockett Hall at Ithaca College, The Cutting Room in NYC, The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, and on two tours of Mexico. From 1998 to 2003, Ms. Chatham toured the U.S. extensively as harpsichordist for the ground-breaking ensemble Bimbetta. Bimbetta was honored by Chamber Music America as one of the ensembles to have changed the face of chamber music in the United States. As pianist in The Chatham-Wood Duo, she performs regularly with violinist Patrick Wood Uribe. Past engagements include concerts at the Mexic-Arte Museum (Austin), the Westminster Choir College Concert Series, Catholic University of America and the Bickford Theatre. The Duo’s live performances of works by Chávez and Ponce, as well as their own transcriptions of Gershwin songs, have been broadcast nationwide in the U.S. on WWFM The Classical Network, and Ms. Chatham has been heard on National Public Radio's programs “Performance Today,” “Harmonia,” and “Soundcheck” as well. She is an active performer in the New York area, performing with ensembles such as Riverside Choral Society, Trinity Choir, Summit Chorale, Fuma Sacra, and Westminster Kantorei, as well as with singers and instrumentalists in recital. Ms. Chatham has served as Director of Music at Chatham Hall in Virginia, at the Marymount School in New York, and at Christ Church in Summit, NJ. She is a vocal coach at the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University.

Ms. Chatham holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Collaborative Piano from Rutgers University, where she studied with Barbara González-Palmer. She received her Master of Music degree in Harpsichord and Fortepiano Performance from the Early Music Institute at Indiana University (Bloomington) where she studied with Elisabeth Wright and Colin Tilney. At IU she was awarded the prestigious Performer's Certificate and was a winner of the Baroque Concerto Competition. She received her Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from Clayton State University (Atlanta), where she studied with George Lucktenberg, Michiko Otaki, Richard Morris and Lyle Nordstrom.