Classical

Producing classical music still gives me the thrill I first experienced as a cloth-eared Tonmeister at the University of Surrey twenty years ago. When the artist, the instrument, the room and the microphones are perfectly aligned, the process and the results can be magical. I expect to be doing this until I’m dead or deaf, whichever comes first.

I’ve worked with many fine instrumentalists, orchestras, choirs and chamber groups, and my favourite recording spaces are Potton Hall, Henry Wood Hall, Abbey Road, and Wyastone.

My first collaboration with Tony Woollard brought together five contemporary composers from very different backgrounds, and the resulting CD, Cello Journey, was critically acclaimed by Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine on its release in 2010. (’Holdsworth deserves great credit for intimate but utterly clear recorded sound.’ – International Record Review)

Filmed at the ‘After Class’ recording sessions in Potton Hall. Sound recording (P) RAD Enterprises 2009. Used with permission.

The follow up project, 50 Songs of Hope and Sorrow, started out as a single 3-hour session to ease the pain of a close friend’s passing, and ended up being an intensely creative three month journey for both of us.