MA Top 30 Professional: John Holloway

Executive Director
Seattle Chamber Music Society

In John Holloway’s view, concert halls are just one of many spaces for performance. Museums, schools, and retirement homes are equally worthy.

Executive director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society since 2021, Holloway has expanded its presence well beyond its traditional stages at the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall and Benaroya Hall, going outdoors to piers and parks, or on the road with its Concert Truck.

At the center of this work is Holloway’s firm belief that chamber music belongs to everyone.

“I’ve always thought that everyone loves chamber music, just some people don’t know it yet,” he says. “I see chamber music as the gateway—an introduction—to classical music…not as an exclusive niche.”

In September, the Society launched a new residency program that places a quartet of emerging professional musicians in a retirement community. The musicians live, rehearse, and share meals alongside residents.

“Our partnerships with retirement communities continue to thrive because those spaces simply come alive when filled with world-class music.”

The organization also partners with the University of Washington Hospital, performing for end-of-life patients, and working with memory care residents. It also reaches out to elementary school students, a group of which was recently invited to create paintings inspired by a live piano performance of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

“The goal of every nonprofit, no matter the field, is to improve quality of life for the people it serves,” Holloway says. “We doubled down on that mission by being present in people’s lives,” no matter where those lives may take them.

Alongside its growing community-engagement programs—which include free lectures, master classes, open rehearsals, family concerts, and sight-reading parties—the Society responded to the Covid-19 pandemic by launching a digital concert platform, transforming its once-summer-only festival into a year-round resource.

The plan is for its recently acquired Concert Truck, complete with a grand piano, lighting, sound system, and retractable stage, to become part of a fleet.

“We’re opening up our playbook and providing the vehicles to organizations around the country to drive similar success,” Holloway says.