A versatile conductor, keyboardist, singer, and educator, Dr. Brandon Hollihan enjoys a professional career full of various responsibilities and opportunities. He serves as Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Carson-Newman University in east Tennessee and is also the music director for First United Methodist Church, Jefferson City. At Carson-Newman he conducts the A Cappella Choir and Men's Chorus, teaches classes in conducting, choral music education, and aural skills, and also assists with the university's freshman-wide Liberal Arts 101 program. Prior to C-N, he taught at Indiana University-South Bend and Bethel University in northern Indiana.

Under Brandon's direction, the Carson-Newman choirs have given performances and made recordings of such works as Messiah, Brahms' Liebeslieder Waelzer, Faure's Requiem, and Vivaldi's Magnificat. In the fall of 2023 the choral programs collaborated with acclaimed music arranger and composer Cliff Duren on a modern hymn project that features ten new hymn arrangements, released through Brentwood Benson Publishing and the C-N Ball Institute for Church Music.

Brandon earned his DMA in choral conducting from the University of Notre Dame, studying under Dr. Carmen-Helena Téllez. As a student, he gave conducting recitals that featured works such as Bach's "Reformation" cantata, BWV 80 Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, and Schoenberg’s “Friede auf Erden.” During his doctoral studies Brandon was a conducting fellow with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra, as well as a fellow with the Norfolk Choral Conducting and Chamber Music Workshop and a scholar with the Chorus America Conducting Academy.

Brandon’s dissertation research included a lecture recital featuring BWV 4 Christ lag in Todesbanden and Steve Reich’s acclaimed chamber work Tehillim. The concert was a collaboration with fellow Notre Dame students, musicians throughout the South Bend region, and featured the Grammy-winning ensemble Third Coast Percussion from Chicago. The performance produced further research needed for Brandon’s dissertation, entitled “Rehearsal and Performance Issues in Steve Reich’s Tehillim: Unlocking the Process,” and an article stemming from this research appears in a 2020 issue of The Choral Scholar & American Choral Review. He has also been published in Choral Journal, Choral Director, and The Ohio State Online Music Journal.

Prior to studying at Notre Dame, Brandon taught vocal music at Whetstone High School in Columbus City Schools, a school rich in musical traditions that has produced many outstanding talents in instrumental and vocal music.  He worked concurrently as the choir director and organist at Northwest United Methodist Church, where he has given performances of Haydn’s The Creation (2017), Handel's Messiah (2012) and Saint-Saens’ Oratorio de Noel (2014).  Brandon also directed the Clintonville Community Choir, an exceptional community ensemble that meets Monday evenings at Whetstone and performs frequently in Clintonville and other Columbus neighborhoods.

Brandon earned his BA in Music from the University of Notre Dame, studying with baritone John Riley-Schofield. He then went on to earn dual Master's degrees in Voice and Choral Conducting from The Ohio State University. He cites Hilary Apfelstadt, Robert Ward and Robin Rice as several of his OSU teachers who gave him the resources and inspiration to realize his goal of becoming a professional musician and educator.  

Brandon lives in north Knoxville with his wife and C-N collaborative pianist, Dr. Junghwa Lee, as well as their cat, Clara.

Teaching Philosophy: Brandon believes in the importance of utilizing the talents of all students, all of whom are diverse in nature and share different cultural experiences, and nurture each individual's gifts and provide them with experiences that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. He is a strong believer of "maximizing" one's musical curriculum, and that the quality of output is far more important than the quantity.