D. Kern Holoman, a University of California, Davis, music professor and UCD Symphony Orchestra conductor, is the recipient of the 1995 UC Davis Prize for Teaching and Scholarly Achievement. Considered to be the largest annual award of its kind in the nation, the $25,000 prize was established by the UC Davis Foundation through gifts from the Davis Chancellor's Club Fellows. It pays tribute to faculty members on campus who demonstrate skillful undergraduate teaching and remarkable scholarly achievements. The prize is significant because "it recognizes those who can teach undergraduates and at the same time do the things they need to do to maintain their scholarship and excel in research," says Ken Nitzberg, chair of the foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports UC Davis. The prize will be awarded to Holoman at a gala dinner May 9 in Freeborn Hall at which he will give an address and conduct the UCD Symphony Orchestra in a performance of an excerpt from Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique. Holoman, 47, has been a professor of music at UC Davis since 1974. This week, he was selected as interim dean of the Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies for the UC Davis College of Letters and Science. Known as an innovative classroom teacher, in 1986 he was awarded the UC Davis Distinguished Teaching Award by the UC Davis Academic Senate. At the time of that award, Christopher Reynolds, now chair of the music department, recalls being "amazed by the number of students who wrote, saying things like 'this man changed my life.' Kern's teaching goes way beyond the classroom." "Professor Holoman is an internationally acclaimed scholar who cares deeply that his students grow intellectually and personally," said UC Davis Chancellor Larry N. Vanderhoef. "There is no more devoted a professor or more perfect model of the commitment and passion that he expects from his students." During the present academic year, Holoman is serving as interim chair of the dramatic art department. He is also a member of a committee appointed by the chancellor to investigate the possibility of building a performing arts center on campus. Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, dean of the College of Letters and Science, said that as a teacher, Holoman "combines learning, creativity and unbounded enthusiasm for his subject and his students." She also noted that "in defiance of generally accepted standards of teaching, Professor Holoman has taught seven courses annually for several years." Among his efforts for students are his introductory music literature course, his work with the UCD Symphony Orchestra, development of a multimedia music-appreciation package known as Masterworks to be published in 1996, and authorship of a 96-page pamphlet for the Sacramento Symphony, "Dr. Holoman's Handy Guide to Concert-Going," which later became a book entitled "Evenings with the Orchestra: a Norton Companion to Concert-Going." Students and colleagues note Holoman's ability to combine his scholarly passions and his interest in teaching. As former student Darin Wilson said, "Scholarship and teaching are often represented as being on opposite sides of a chasm. This is not so with Holoman. He is a scholar when he's teaching, and he's a teacher in his research." Holoman put it this way: "I try to live a life with one foot planted in the creative and performing side of the discipline and the other in the scholarly wing. I was always told you couldn't do it -- that there aren't enough hours in the day. Today, though, with the focus in arts and humanities on interdisciplinary studies, there's more of a notion that you can live such a life." UC Davis undergraduate students praise Holoman for his utter enthusiasm for teaching. "Professor Holoman's genuine love of the subject makes learning from him a joy. One can't help learning from someone who knows so much that he is constantly bubbling over with information," says Emilie Patton, an undergraduate music major. Holoman said he thinks of himself as primarily a teacher of undergraduate students. "Everything I do is a function of my interaction with those who come to our institution to voyage and to learn." He appreciates his students for their "limitless vigor, for the energy that young people bring to their education, for the potential every student has for being conspicuously better today than yesterday. You are always astonished by the way the fire has caught and how the world is alive and blooming," Holoman said. During the 14 years he has conducted the UCD Symphony, Holoman has demonstrated his commitment to the university's mission of public service by keeping concerts free, even during adverse economic times. Symphony flutist Tamiko Katsumoto says, "Whenever the suggestion of charging money for orchestra concerts is brought up, he obstinately refuses. His desire is to expose as many as possible to the joy of music, especially those who have never attended a concert in their lives. He wishes that they might be able to take a bit of the magic home with them and remember it forever." Holoman's research as a musicologist focuses on the work of Hector Berlioz, a 19th-century French Romantic composer. In 1989, Holoman's "Berlioz," a 687-page biography of the composer, was published by Harvard University Press. Holoman is one of several authors of a forthcoming book, "The Symphony: 1828-1900," to be published later this year. Highlights of his research career include being named as both a Woodrow Wilson and Fulbright-Hays fellow, and receiving the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters from the Republic of France. Holoman served as chairman of the music department in the 1980s and currently serves as chair of the dramatic art department. Tomlinson-Keasey notes Holoman's contributions to the drama department, saying "In five months, he has restored morale, added a new faculty member from dance, ... and has plans for yet other faculty, all of whom are enormously talented and bring bright, new visions to the study of dramatic art." Holoman, who was born in North Carolina, received his Ph.D. from Princeton University and completed his undergraduate studies at Duke University. He is married to Elizabeth Holoman, a French teacher, and they have two children, Kate and Michael. The UC Davis Prize for Teaching and Scholarly Achievement was established in 1987 through a gift from an alumnus who asked to remain unnamed. Nominations for the prize are made by deans of UC Davis colleges and schools offering undergraduate education. The committee that made the final selection was made up of representatives from the UC Davis Foundation, the Davis Division of the UC Academic Senate, the Associated Students of UC Davis and Chancellor Vanderhoef.