Who Is Lee Holdridge?
Meet the Emmy-winning composer, arranger, and conductor appearing with La Mirada Symphony for the Denver & Diamond Symphony Tribute.
Lee Holdridge appears with La Mirada Symphony — and brings decades of musical storytelling with him.
Emmy-winning composer, arranger, and conductor Lee Holdridge appears with La Mirada Symphony for the Denver & Diamond Symphony Tribute on Sunday, May 24, 2026. The concert begins at 2:00 PM at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts.
For audiences attending the concert, his appearance adds a remarkable connection to the music of John Denver and Neil Diamond. In addition, it gives the afternoon a deeper link to the craft behind the songs.
As a result, this event becomes more than a tribute concert. It becomes a chance to hear familiar music through the imagination of an artist who helped shape orchestral storytelling for stage and screen.
This is where a song stops being a memory and becomes an experience.La Mirada Symphony
A career built around song, story, and orchestra.
Lee Holdridge is one of those artists whose work many people have heard, even if they may not know his name right away. His career has crossed popular music, film, television, opera, and the concert hall.
Because of that range, his appearance at the Denver & Diamond Symphony Tribute matters. The concert is not only about hearing beloved songs. It is also about hearing them through the lens of an artist who understands scale, emotion, and orchestral color.
Ultimately, Holdridge helps explain why a familiar melody can feel new again when it is expanded by a full orchestra.
How Neil Diamond helped bring him to Los Angeles.
Holdridge began his career in New York. At the time, he was writing chamber music, songs, theater music, rock pieces, and scores for short films.
Eventually, his work came to the attention of Neil Diamond. Diamond then brought him to Los Angeles to write arrangements for his albums.
From there, their creative relationship continued to grow. For example, Holdridge and Diamond later collaborated on the film score for Jonathan Livingston Seagull, which blended popular song, cinema, and orchestral writing.
Arranging and conducting for John Denver.
Holdridge’s career also includes arranging and conducting for John Denver. In addition, he worked with major artists such as Plácido Domingo, Barbra Streisand, Natalie Cole, and Whitney Houston.
That background gives the May 24 concert added depth. When audiences hear the music of Denver and Diamond with orchestra, they are hearing more than a collection of hits.
Instead, they are hearing a style of musical storytelling that Holdridge helped shape across decades.
You may already know his music.
Holdridge’s film and television credits include Splash, Mr. Mom, The Beastmaster, Moonlighting, Beauty and the Beast, The Tuskegee Airmen, and the Academy Award-winning documentary Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport.
Although those projects are very different, they share an important thread. Holdridge writes and conducts music that understands drama, memory, nostalgia, and emotional release.
- Film music
- Television scores
- Concert works
- Popular song arrangements
This is more than a tribute concert.
Tribute concerts often celebrate beloved performers. However, this one also highlights the musical craft behind the songs.
Arrangements, colors, textures, and orchestral choices all change how familiar music lands in the room. As a result, songs people already love can feel newly alive.
Lee Holdridge’s appearance gives audiences a rare opportunity to connect the music of John Denver and Neil Diamond with an artist whose career helped shape the sound of songs, films, television, and the concert hall.
For this concert, the story is not only who sang the songs. It is also who helped imagine how large those songs could become.
Continue exploring.
See him May 24.
Join La Mirada Symphony for the Denver & Diamond Symphony Tribute, a special ticketed concert celebrating John Denver, Neil Diamond, and the orchestral craft behind unforgettable songs.