 "MUSED" also performed works by Holley, and gave him his first experience of conducting.Holley received an Australia–Japan Foundation Travel Grant in 1977 which enabled him to undertake a two-month study tour attending new music festivals in Japan.The following year he was awarded grants from the Gulbenkian Foundation and the Music Board of the Australia Council to represent Australia at the Gulbenkian Foundation Summer School for Composers and Choreographers at Surrey University in the United Kingdom.