Holly Mulcahy

After hearing Scheherazade at an early age, Holly Mulcahy fell in love with the violin and knew it would be her future. She currently serves as concertmaster of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. She spends her summers at the celebrated Grand Teton Music Festival. Believing in music as a healing and coping source, Holly founded Arts Capacity, a charitable 501(c)3 which focuses on bringing live chamber music, art, artists, and composers to prisons. Arts Capacity addresses many emotional and character-building issues people face as they prepare for release into society. Holly performs on a 1917 Giovanni Cavani violin, previously owned by the late renowned soloist Eugene Fodor, and a bespoke bow made by award winning master bow maker, Douglas Raguse.

PR vs. TMI

Tue, Nov 6, 2012 by Holly Mulcahy

There are many lockouts, strikes, and very contentious negotiations going on in the orchestra world these days. With all of the finger pointing going on I want to add something that is getting overlooked; I’ve written about this before, but would like to restate that the music schools in this country need to step up and add more real life training to their curriculum. Granted, some music schools have started offering courses on topics such as handling career obstacles; they’re usually done so under the guise of entrepreneurship training. Even though most of … Continue Reading

Twitter Seats & Knitter Seats

Mon, Oct 1, 2012Mon, Oct 1, 2012 by Holly Mulcahy

It is no secret that in this crazy job of music making, many musicians base a concert’s success on how their level of individual playing. Yes, you can say the whole ensemble did well (or not), but there can be a self nagging urge after a concert to mentally relive a missed cue or wrong bowing. It’s the way musicians are; incredibly focused and detail oriented.

Creativity is in our DNA

Mon, Sep 3, 2012 by Holly Mulcahy

While reading the news last week I come across two items which had everything and nothing to do with each other: another school shooting and an obituary of a famous jazz musician. Legendary jazz artist Byard Lancaster who died of cancer last week was quoted in his obituary saying this: “One of the reasons we have violence in the schools is we’ve taken music out of the schools.” Byard was right. Over the past 20 years music and arts education have steadily been cut out of many public schools and we are … Continue Reading

Seeing The Forest For The Trees

Sun, Aug 12, 2012Sun, Aug 12, 2012 by Holly Mulcahy

The 2011-2012 season was one of the busiest in my career and although that’s a good problem to have, it does cut down on the time usually spent staying grounded and keeping the bigger picture in perspective. So my time performing at the Grand Teton Music Festival (GTMF) was more important than ever this summer to not only help artistically and emotionally recharge but to provide a healthy context for refocusing on the bigger picture and preparing for the upcoming season. Thank your music teachers. Even if you quit middle school orchestra, … Continue Reading

Who The Hell Are You Calling Old?!

Mon, Jun 4, 2012Sun, Jun 3, 2012 by Holly Mulcahy

There is little free time on any orchestra tour, and last month’s trip to Carnegie Hall with the Nashville Symphony was no different. The orchestra was scheduled to rehearse and perform on Saturday, so arrival the day before left little time to really do anything touristy. About the same point I was wondering how to spend the evening, I got a text from a friend asking if I wanted to go to see the opera at the Met that evening. I figured it would be something very New Yorky to do in … Continue Reading