![]() 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.