# Lee Holdridge

Lee Elwood Holdridge (born March 3, 1944) is a Haitian-born American composer, conductor, and orchestrator. An 18-time Emmy Award nominee, he has won two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Daytime Emmy Awards, two News and Documentary Emmy Awards, and one Sports Emmy Award. He has also been nominated for two Grammy Awards.

## Life and career

Holdridge was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, of a Puerto Rican mother and an American father, Leslie Holdridge, a botanist and climatologist.
While living in Costa Rica, at age ten, he studied the violin with Hugo Mariani, who was at the time the conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica. He then moved to Boston, where he finished high school and studied composition with Henry Lasker. Later in New York he had numerous study consultations with composer Nicolas Flagello as well as composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim.
The move to New York City enabled Holdridge to continue his music studies and begin his career as a professional composer. There, he composed chamber works, rock pieces, songs, theater music and background scores for short films, and eventually came to Neil Diamond's notice. Diamond then brought Holdridge with him to Los Angeles to write arrangements for his forthcoming albums. After several gold and platinum hits, the two collaborated on the Grammy Award winning score for producer/director Hall Bartlett's film adaptation of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Neil Diamond sued Bartlett for cutting much of his music from the film. Diamond was also against sharing musical credit with Holdridge; however, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences ruled in Holdridge's favor. Bartlett was ordered to reinstate the five minutes of Diamond's music score and three of his songs, "Anthem", "Prologue", and "Dear Father", and that the onscreen credits were to state "Music and songs by Neil Diamond", "Background score composed and adapted by Neil Diamond and Lee Holdridge", and "Music supervision by Tom Catalano".
Holdridge has composed and orchestrated for many films, including:
* Jeremy (1973)
* Forever Young, Forever Free (1975)
* Mustang Country (1976)
* The Pack (1977)
* The Other Side of the Mountain Part 2 (1978)
* Like Mom, Like Me (1978)
* Moment by Moment (1978)
* Tilt (1979)
* French Postcards (1979)
* American Pop (1981)
* The Day the Loving Stopped (1981)
* The Beastmaster (1982)
* Mr. Mom (1983)
* Splash (1984)
* Micki & Maude (1984)
* Transylvania 6-5000 (1985)
* The Men's Club (1986)
* A Tiger's Tale (1987)
* Big Business (1988)
* Old Gringo (1989)
* The Adventures of Pinocchio (1996)
* Into Thin Air: Death on Everest (1997)
* The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue (1998)
* Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport (2000)
* Puerto Vallarta Squeeze (2004)
* Brothers at War (2009).
* It Is No Dream (2012)
* Brothers After War (2023)
He composed for several television series, including:
* Sara
* East of Eden
* Eight is Enough
* I'll Take Manhattan
* Atomic Train
* The Mists of Avalon
* American Family
* The Brooke Ellison Story
* Moonlighting
* Beauty and the Beast
* 10.5
* When Calls the Heart

## Concert Works

Holdridge has composed numerous concert works including:
Fantasy Chorale for Orchestra and Chorus
Concertino for Guitar and Orchestra
Scenes of Summer
Ode to Orion
The Golden Land
Jefferson Tribute, for narrator and orchestra.
Lazarus and His Beloved, opera and orchestral suite.
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 2
Concerto for Viola and Chamber Orchestra
Concertino for Violoncello and Strings
Serenade for Oboe and Strings
Ballet Fantasy for Strings and Harp
Elegy for Harp and Strings
Hymns Triumphant 1 and 2, suites for chorus and orchestra.
Sonnet for soprano and chamber orchestra.
Dulce Rosa an opera based on an Isabel Allende short story, premiered in 2013.
Trinity for the Joffrey Ballet co-authored with Alan Raph.
Journey to Cordoba, Concierto Para Mendez and Tanis in America, one act operas.

## Personal life

Holdridge is married to ex-ballet dancer Elisa Justice. She is western region audition co-director of the Metropolitan Opera National Council. She also has hosted her own classical music radio show called "Eclectic Classics" and has co-produced a new album and documentary with Milt Okun called Great Voices Sing John Denver. She won a "Best Producer" award for a documentary at the Madrid International Film Festival.

## Awards and nominations
### ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards

| Year | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
| 1988 | Top TV Series | Moonlighting | Won | |
| 2015 | Top Television Series | When Calls the Heart | Won | |

### CableACE Awards

| Year | Category | Nominated work | Results |
| 1988 | Original Score | 16 Days of Glory | Nominated |
| 1989 | Original Score | A Friendship in Vienna | Nominated |
| 1994 | Original Score | Heidi | Nominated |

### Emmy Awards

| Year | Category | Nominated work | Results |
| Primetime Emmy Awards |||||
| 1985 | Outstanding Achievement in Music and Lyrics | "Moonlighting" (from Moonlighting) | Nominated |
| 1988 | Outstanding Achievement in Main Title Theme Music | Beauty and the Beast | Nominated |
| 1988 | Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore) | Beauty and the Beast (Episode: "Once Upon a Time in the City of New York") | Won |
| 1989 | Outstanding Achievement in Music and Lyrics | "The First Time I Loved Forever" (from Beauty and the Beast: A Distant Shore) | Won |
| 1990 | Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries or a Special (Dramatic Underscore) | Do You Know the Muffin Man? | Nominated |
| 1991 | Outstanding Achievement in Main Title Theme Music | ABC World of Discovery | Nominated |
| 1993 | Outstanding Individual Achievement in Main Title Theme Music | Bob | Nominated |
| 1993 | Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a Miniseries or a Special (Dramatic Underscore) | Call of the Wild | Nominated |
| 1995 | Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a Miniseries or a Special (Dramatic Underscore) | Buffalo Girls (for "Part 1") | Nominated |
| 1996 | Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries or a Special | The Tuskegee Airmen | Nominated |
| 1999 | Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries or a Movie (Dramatic Underscore) | Mutiny | Nominated |
| 2002 | Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Dramatic Underscore) | The Mists of Avalon (for "Part 1") | Nominated |
| Daytime Emmy Awards |||||
| 1984 | Special Classification of Outstanding Individual Achievement – Music | Woman to Woman | Nominated |
| 2000 | Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series | One Life to Live | Won |
| 2002 | Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series | One Life to Live | Nominated |
| 2004 | Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series | One Life to Live | Nominated |
| 2005 | Outstanding Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series | One Life to Live | Won |
| 2006 | Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series | One Life to Live | Nominated |
| 2007 | Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series | One Life to Live | Nominated |
| 2008 | Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series | One Life to Live | Nominated |
| 2010 | Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series | One Life to Live | Nominated |
| 2012 | Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series | One Life to Live | Nominated |
| Sports Emmy Awards |||||
| 1998 | Outstanding Achievement in a Craft: Music Composition/Direction/Lyrics | Atlanta's Olympic Glory | Won |
| News and Documentary Emmy Awards |||||
| 1988 | Outstanding Achievement in a Craft in News and Documentary Programming – Music | The Explorers: A Century of Discovery | Won |
| 1991 | Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Music Composition | ABC World of Discovery (for "Beautiful Killers") | Won |

### Grammy Awards

| Year | Category | Nominated work | Results | Ref. |
| 1973 | Best Instrumental Arrangement | "Prologue/Crunchy Granola Suite" | Nominated | |
| 1987 | Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television | "Moonlighting" (from Moonlighting: The Television Soundtrack Album) | Nominated | |

### International Film Music Critics Association Awards

| Year | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
| 2009 | Best Original Score for a Documentary Feature | Brothers at War | Nominated | |

### Online Film & Television Association Awards

| Year | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
| 2002 | Best Music in a Motion Picture or Miniseries | The Mists of Avalon | Nominated | |