Ann Holler is a longtime advocate for the arts, a teacher, composer and performer.
Ann Holler is the founding president of Arts Alliance Mountain Empire and served on its board and A! Magazine committee for decades before she retired from the organization. She is also a composer, performer and longtime music teacher in the community and a tireless advocate for the arts.
Originally from Wythe County, Virginia, she has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from King College, a bachelor’s in music from Virginia Intermont College and a master’s degree in music theory from the University of Tennessee. She has been a private piano instructor since the 1970s and taught music theory at East Tennessee State University and King University. She is a member of the Bristol Music Club, Appalachian Teachers Music Association, Greater Tri-Cities Composers Consortium, Fort Chiswell Chapter DAR, Wilderness Road Chapter Colonial Dames XVIIC and the Jamestowne Society.
“I first became involved in the arts at age 6 when my grandmother began teaching me to play piano. My piano study continued through high school. I heard wonderful performers in community concerts. In my first college career, I studied organ and voice and sang in choirs. As a young adult I sang in church choirs. I also pursued a second college degree in music at Virginia Intermont College, where faculty members brought world class artists for master classes and concerts. Through that experience and through attending conferences and workshops, I learned ever so much about how to listen to music, how to perform music and how to teach music. Fortunately, in subsequent years, I have been able to pass on some of that knowledge and experience to private students and college students.
“My involvement with A! Magazine for the Arts began around 1995 when I joined the A! Magazine Committee, hosted and managed by Bristol Herald Courier at that time. Wallace Coffey instructed members of this committee that we were to work on behalf of all the arts in our community, not just our own art forms or our own organizations. This was very good advice and is the reason, I believe, that A! Magazine has flourished for almost 30 years through many changes and challenges. Working together to promote the richness and diversity of arts in our region has enriched not only individual artists and organizations, but also those of us who were able to provide that service to the arts community,” she says.
The impetus to compose music came to her late in life compared with most composers, leading her to write chamber music, choral music and piano solos. Local conductors, directors, churches and choirs have performed her music. Her works have been performed in locations such as Arizona, New York, Italy, England and Scotland.
She has received commissions to compose works for several performing groups.
“Probably the most exciting highlight was the performance of my ‘Souvenirs of Faith,’ a three-movement instrumental arrangement of hymns that Tennessee Ernie Ford sang on his television shows. The Paramount Chamber Players performed this set of hymns in 2016 to a full house at the Paramount Center for the Arts as part of the commemoration of the life of Tennessee Ernie Ford,” she says.
Holler is especially proud of her fundraising activities to provide grand pianos for two stages. She and her husband, Pete, along with Fey and Mary T. Rogers raised funds for a grand piano for the King University Chapel. They worked with Diane Thomas, Pat and Joe Lawson and others to raise the money and bring a grand piano to the stage of the Paramount Center for the Arts.
Now retired, she is composing and arranging instrumental and vocal music. She still sings in her church choir and teaches piano, theory and composition to a few students. She continues to volunteer in the community with several organizations.
“Music has been a huge part of my entire life, as a focus of inquiry, as a skill to learn, as a means of expression and communication, as a way to touch beauty, as a way to connect with others, as a source of comfort, as a necessity, as a way to understand history, as something to pass to the next generation, as a way to create community, as a way to connect the right and left sides of the brain, as a means to transcend the ordinary, as a means to relate to other art forms. Where does the list stop? I cannot imagine a world without music. All the arts are connected and related in many ways. Creating opportunities for young people to experience many art forms is so very important, not only for brain development, but also for the reasons listed above. The community can come together through the arts, and the community can work to provide opportunities for the young, the old and everyone in between. The A! Magazine Committee has always been cognizant of the fact that we bring the arts to underserved communities. May that work continue. We do not do art alone. We do not promote the arts alone. We all work together as a community.
“Nancy DeFriece and the Tennessee Arts Commission are the true founders of AAME. Although I served as the founding president of AAME, without their vision and support there would be no AAME and no award. Without the talented writing of Angela Wampler and Leslie Grace, without the thousands of volunteer hours donated by committee members, and without faithful advertisers and sponsors, A! Magazine for the Arts would not exist. AAME would not have been able to fulfill DeFriece’s vision that AAME and A! Magazine could join together. So, this award is a testimony to all those who have worked for almost 30 years to produce A! Magazine for the Arts and for more than 20 years to fulfill Arts Alliance Mountain Empire’s mission of service tothe arts,” she says.
