E-mail: rholly@niu.edu
Phone: 815-753-1138
Fax: 815-753-8372
Richard Holly is the Dean of the NIU College of Visual and Performing Arts. Prior to this appointment, Dean Holly served as Associate Dean of the College and has been a Professor of Percussion at Northern Illinois University since 1983.
As a percussionist, he remains active as a solo performer and clinician, and has appeared over 300 times at schools, colleges, universities, conventions and festivals throughout the United States, Europe, Canada and Asia. Rich received his formal training at the State University of New York at Potsdam and East Carolina University.
His principal teachers were Henry Gates, Howie Mann, James Petercsak, and Harold Jones. Rich studied Brazilian percussion with Manoel Monteiro, Afro-Cuban drumming with Frank Malabe, and West African drumming with Abraham Adzenyah and Famoudou Konate. Rich was a founding member of the Abraxas Percussion Group, and has performed with the Long Island Holiday Festival Orchestra, the Lyric Opera of New York, and the North Carolina Symphony. For 11 seasons Rich was Timpanist of the Illinois Chamber Symphony.
As a drumset artist, Rich has appeared with Allen Vizzutti, John Fedchock, Ethel Merman, Red Skelton, Bob McGrath and Sesame Street and many others. Since 1984 Rich has played drumset and percussion with Inner City recording artists Rhythmic Union.
Rich's articles have appeared in almost every major music journal, and from 1986 to 2002 he was the Associate Editor for Percussive Notes magazine. His published percussion compositions are sold around the world. Active in the Percussive Arts Society, Rich served as the President of PAS in 2005 and 2006 and currently serves as Immediate Past President. His guest appearances are sponsored in part by Yamaha Music Corporation of America, Sabian Cymbals, Ltd., and Innovative Percussion sticks and mallets, and he is a member of the Latin Percussion Educational Advisory Board.