Patricia Blomfield Holt facts for kids

Patricia Blomfield Holt (born September 15, 1910 – died June 5, 2003) was a Canadian composer, pianist, and music educator. She was a member of the Canadian Music Centre and the Association of Canadian Women Composers. Her music was played by famous groups in North America and Europe.

Life Story

Patricia Blomfield Holt was born Patricia Blomfield in Lindsay, Ontario. She started her music journey as a teenager, mostly teaching herself to compose and play the piano.

When she was 19, in 1928, she joined The Royal Conservatory of Music. For the next ten years, she studied and taught there at the same time. She learned from well-known teachers like Norman Wilks, Hayunga Carman, Leo Smith, Ernest MacMillan, and Healey Willan. She taught herself how to compose music until she started studying with Healey Willan in 1936.

In 1938, she won the Vogt Society Award for her music piece, Suite No. 1 for Violin and Piano. Her Suite No. 2 was praised by a London music magazine, which said it was "handled with certainty and a nice sense of texture."

After she got married in 1939, she decided not to take a scholarship to the Juilliard School. She also left her teaching job at The Royal Conservatory of Music. She didn't go back to teaching there until 1954. Blomfield Holt taught music history, music theory, composition, and piano playing until she retired in 1985.

Her Music Style

Patricia Blomfield Holt's music is described as "traditional and well-made." Most of her works are for small groups of instruments (chamber music) or for singing (vocal works).

Her piece Lyric Piece No. 2 was recorded by Jeremy Findlay and Elena Braslavsky in 2002. Her orchestral work, Legend of the North Woods, describes a lake from a Canadian painting. The University of Calgary Orchestra recorded this piece.

Some of Her Works

Patricia Blomfield Holt wrote many different types of music. Here are some examples:

Music for Plays

• Sister Beatrice (1936)

Orchestra Music

• Pastorale (1940)
• Legend of the North Woods (1985)

Chamber Music

• Suite no.1, for violin and piano (1936)
• Lyric Pieces nos.1-2, for cello and piano (1937)
• String Quartet No. 1 (1937)

Vocal Music

• Songs of Early Canada (1950)
• The Birds, for voice and piano (1971)
• Magnificat (1986)

Piano Music

• Scherzo - Riding a Bicycle (1962)
• Two Piano Pieces (1974)
• Moments in Time (2002)