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Leading Musician, Arts Administrator Named Dean Of Meadows School

Samuel S. Holland, an internationally renowned music educator and outstanding arts administrator, has been named the Algur H. Meadows dean of Meadows School of the Arts. Holland has provided strong leadership to the Meadows School in both teaching and administrative roles for more than 20 years.

Samuel S. Holland, an internationally renowned music educator and outstanding arts administrator, has been named the Algur H. Meadows Dean of Meadows School of the Arts.
Samuel S. Holland, an internationally renowned music educator and outstanding arts administrator, has been named the Algur H. Meadows Dean of Meadows School of the Arts.

“We are delighted to have a distinguished leader who is already a highly respected member of the SMU family and the Dallas arts community to assume this important position,” says President R. Gerald Turner. “Sam Holland brings experience and success not only in teaching and performing, but also in fundraising, external outreach and impact on his profession.”
The Music Division Holland has led in the Meadows School was named the number one music program in the United States in the 2014 College Factual rankings, as reported in USA Today.
Holland has been director of the Meadows School’s Division of Music since 2010. He has served as Meadows dean ad interim since July 2014, following the departure of former dean José Antonio Bowen.
Holland joined the Meadows music faculty in 1991, initially serving as head of piano pedagogy and director of the Piano Preparatory Department. In subsequent years, his administrative positions in the Meadows School have included serving as head of the Department of Keyboard Studies and Pedagogy, associate chair and chair ad interim of the Division of Music and associate director for academic affairs of the Meadows School. His teaching at SMU has included piano pedagogy, studio piano, computers and keyboards, jazz piano and piano master classes.
“After years of growth in the quality and reputation of its programs, the Meadows School is emerging as a national model for arts education in the 21st century,” Holland says. “Considering the people at SMU and Meadows, an extraordinary executive board and the dynamism of Dallas, I can’t help but be irrepressibly optimistic about the future. Great cultural centers have great schools nearby. Lincoln Center has Juilliard. Chicago has Northwestern. The Dallas Arts District has Meadows. The powerhouse schools of the next 25 years will be those in which fine and performing arts are working alongside cutting-edge communication arts – precisely the ingredients we celebrate at Meadows.”
He has provided leadership in fundraising for Meadows School programs. He worked with the Meadows development team to obtain more than $10 million in new giving for piano inventory and programs; renovation of practice facilities; and support for endowed scholarships, new endowed professorships and the ensemble-in-residence program.
Holland has extended the Meadows School’s reach beyond the campus. He developed closer associations with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and organized SMU student performances for civic events, such as the grand opening of the Winspear Opera House and groundbreaking for the George W. Bush Presidential Center. He developed and shepherded partnerships with community groups including Dallas Chamber Music, Voices of Change, Dallas Bach Society and the Allegro Guitar Society.
Aside from his responsibilities in the Meadows School, Holland is co-founder and executive director of the Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy, Inc., a nonprofit educational institution in New Jersey. He is executive director of the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy and Clavier Companion magazine. He chairs the Committee on Ethics of the Texas Association of Music Schools.
He earned his Bachelor of Music in applied music cum laude from The University of Texas at Austin, followed by a Master of Music in applied music with highest honors at the University of Houston and a Ph.D. in music education with an emphasis in piano pedagogy at the University of Oklahoma.

After years of growth in the quality and reputation of its programs, the Meadows School is emerging as a national model for arts education in the 21st century,” Holland says. “Considering the people at SMU and Meadows, an extraordinary executive board and the dynamism of Dallas, I can’t help but be irrepressibly optimistic about the future. Great cultural centers have great schools nearby. Lincoln Center has Juilliard. Chicago has Northwestern. The Dallas Arts District has Meadows. The powerhouse schools of the next 25 years will be those in which fine and performing arts are working alongside cutting-edge communication arts – precisely the ingredients we celebrate at Meadows.”

Before joining the SMU music faculty, he taught at the University of Kentucky School of Music and Westminster Choir College of Rider University.
Holland is the author or co-author of more than 70 critically acclaimed method and repertoire collections with major publishers. At the international level, he has provided leadership for music workshops and lecture/demonstrations in England, Spain, Australia, Hungary, Norway and Canada. He has represented the Meadows Division of Music on visits to the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Shanghai, Spain and the Peoples’ Republic of China.
Holland has been honored with the Texas Music Teacher Association Outstanding Collegiate Teaching Award and the Dean’s Prize of Meadows School of the Arts.

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