photo by Berta Daniels

Darryl Hollister
Accompanist

Darryl Hollister was born in Detroit, Michigan. He received his B.M. from Michigan State University where he studied with Ralph Votapek and Deborah Moriarty, and his M.M. from New England Conservatory of Music where he studied with Patricia Zander. He is an active accompanist and performer in the Boston area. He serves as accompanist and assistant conductor to the Dedham Choral Society, Coro Allegro, the Framingham Choral Society, and Commonwealth School Chorus and Chorale.

Since he has started championing the works of African and African-American composers, he has performed premieres of works by various leading composers. At the Festival of African and African-American Music in St. Louis in 2000 he premiered The Spring of Esentre by Gyimah Labi, Concertino Africana for Piano and Orchestra by Paul Konye and participated in the North American premiere of Baptism of Fire: Symphony Concertante for Three Pianos and Orchestra by Gyimah Labi. In December of 2002 he performed a recital of African piano music at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In April 2003 he gave the world premiere of Three Ivory Magnolia Fantasies by Gary Nash in a recital at Mississippi Valley State University. In August 2003 at the 2nd International Symposium and Festival on Composition in Africa and the Diaspora at Cambridge University, Cambridge, England, he performed world premieres of works by Paul Konye, Wallace Cheatham, Akin Euba, Gary Nash, Robert Kwami, and Joshua Uziogwe. At FESAAM 2004 in Kansas City he performed solo recitals and performed with Flutist Wendy Hymes in a recital of the music of Ghanian composer J. H. Kwabena Nketia.

He has collaborated with soprano Dawn Padmore in recitals devoted to the music of African and African-American composers. Their performances include recitals at Cambridge University; England, Le Festival International des Musiques Sacrées, Profane, et Populaires in Fort-du-France, Martinique; St. Thomas and St. John, Virgin Islands; Harvard University; and Pittsburgh University where they recently premiered a song cycle Contemplating Life by Akin Euba. In July 2005 they were invited to perform at the New Music Indaba Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa where they premiered Indaba Songs, songs written by five South African composers in five indigenous languages. In August 2005 they returned to St. Thomas and St. John where they performed Indaba Songs. In January of 2007 they performed a recital of African piano and vocal music at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.