Lee University 2004 Honorary Alumnus of the Year

Dr. David Holsinger
2004 Honorary Alumnus of the Year

Lee’s Distinguished Honorary Alumnus of the Year is Dr. David Holsinger. In 1999, having served 15 years as Composer in Residence to Shady Grove Church, Grand Prairie, Texas, award winning composer and conductor David R. Holsinger came to Lee University, where he teaches conducting, composition and serves as Director of the Wind Ensemble.

Holsinger’s compositions have won four national competitions, including a two time ABA Ostwald Award. His works have also been finalists in the NBA and Sudler composition competitions. In the summer of 1998, the United States Air Force Band of the West featured Holsinger as the Heritage VI composer during the Texas Bandmasters Association convention in San Antonio. This prestigious series celebrating American wind composers was founded in 1992 and had previously honored Morton Gould, Ron Nelson, Robert Jager, W. Francis McBeth, and Roger Nixon.

An elected member of the American Bandmasters Association, Holsinger’s recent honors include the Distinguished Music Alumni Award from Central Missouri State University, CIDA’S 1999 Director of the Year Citation, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia’s Orpheus Award, the 2003 Distinguished Alumni Award from Central Methodist College, the 2003 Excellence in Scholarship Citation from Lee University, and biographical inclusion in The Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music, Vol. I and III, and Norman Smith’s Program Notes for Band.

In the past ten years, Holsinger served as Visiting Distinguished Composer in Residence at eleven American colleges or universities, and held the Acuff Chair of Excellence in the Creative Arts at Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, Tennessee.

In addition to his university duties, Holsinger spends much of his energies as a guest composer and conductor with All State organizations, professional bands, and university ensembles throughout the United States. When not composing or conducting he plays with model trains.