Guitar
Adrian Holovaty is a longtime Django In June attendee and teacher. How long qualifies as longtime, you ask? He started attending camp in 2007, which was the first year DiJ was more than a weekend event. He was also, notably, the first-ever student to transfer to the teaching staff—in 2013.
Originally from Chicago, Adrian moved to Amsterdam 10 years ago and plays around town with members of the Dutch scene. Three highlights from the last year:
* His quartet opened for Jimmy Rosenberg at the Django Amsterdam festival.
* He joined the Robin Nolan Trio as rhythm guitarist for Robin’s project of George Harrison / Beatles repertoire.
* He released an EP “Layer Cake” with five gypsy-jazz compositions in his multilayered style. https://www.holovaty.com/
Over the years Adrian has played with many of the big names in modern gypsy jazz, both in rhythm and lead capacities. Some of those encounters are documented on Adrian’s YouTube channel.
Adrian’s day job is building Soundslice, software for transcribing, learning and teaching music via interactive notation. As such, he’s given a lot of thought to effective music practice both with and without technology.
For a snapshot of both his playing and teaching, see this video with YouTube guitar personality Paul Davids: