Reed Holmes was born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee in 1952 and studied at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. His principal teachers there were Allen Johnson, Kenneth Jacobs and David Van Vactor. He received his Ph.D. in Music theory from the University of Texas at Austin where he studied composition with Barton McLean. He was for some time Associate Professor of Theory and Composition at the University of Texas at San Antonio where he was Director of the Electronic Music Studio.

Among his several awards: the Luigi Russolo International Competition in Electroacoustical Music (Italy); Distinguished Award for Research and Creative Professional Activities; the David Van Vactor Prize in Composition; the Percussive Arts Society Award in Composition; Outstanding Teacher of the Year; miscellaneous ASCAP awards; and the highly distinguished Freeman Prize in Composition (Los Angeles); and several ASCAP awards.

His composition grants have included three University of Texas Research Grants for Composition, a work for the King William Winds (San Antonio), and an NEA Composers' Fellowship for Composition.

Recordings of his works appear on two Folkways albums, Computer Music from the Outside In and Electronic Music from the Outside In which include his "Moire" and "Nova" respectively; two Opus One albums which feature his Toccata for Piano and Live Delays (#128) and four recent works (#162); and an LP from Advance Recordings (American Society of University Composers) (#6), which contains his "Around the Waves" for quadraphonic tape.

Circle Sonata for Percussion was composed in 1986 and was brought about by a number of influences: Balinese gamelan music, rock & roll, and avant-garde collage-style musical texturing. Percussion material activates around pre-recorded electronic events, and is written in a complex 15/8 meter. As in other of Holmes' pieces, foreground and background sources exchange and interpose musical ideas.

The work is performed in a sterling manner by the Oberlin CD in his "Cat's Cradle 3" for solo cello, performed by David Garrett; the electronic "Drumfire," for computer-generated percussion, a work for dance production inspired by jazz and rock rhythms; and his Electric Symphonies, a pattern-based computer piece featuring an ostinato with continuous variations which the San Antonio Express-News called "...scintillating...wonderfully rich and varied texture with squiggly highlights all of which sets the piece ahead of more dogmatic minimalism."

Reed Holmes also toured as a composer/performer of his own works for computer, electric/Midi Guitar and folk instrument. He served as Chairman and Co-Chairman of Region VI of the Society of Composers, Inc. On October 26, 1996, Mr. Holmes died of an inoperable brain tumor after a brief illness. ~ Philip Krumm, Rovi