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 Music educator, and LP artist, Richard (Rich) Holly, currently holds the position of Associate Dean of the Northern Illinois University (NIU) of Visual and Performing Arts, where he has taught since 1983. He was the Director of the NIU Jazz Camp from 1993 - 2000, and he served as the Assistant Director of the NIU School of Music from 1996 - 2000. Rich remains active as a solo performer and a clinician, and he has appeared at numerous schools, colleges, universities, conventions and festivals throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia.
Rich's formal training began at the State University of New York at Potsdam and East Carolina University, where his principal teachers were Henry Gates, Howie Mann, James Petercsak, and Harold Jones. He also 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 he has performed with the Long Island Holiday Festival Orchestra, the Lyric Opera of New York, and the North Carolina Symphony. For eleven seasons, he was Timpanist of the Illinois Chamber Symphony. As a drum set artist, Rich has appeared with Allen Vizzutti, John Fedchock, Dave Samuels, Bill Molenhof, Ethel Merman, Red Skelton, and Bob McGrath, as well as with many other celebrated performers. He also played drum set and percussion with Inner City recording artists Rhythmic Union from 1984 - 2000.
Rich's illuminating and informative articles have appeared in countless music journals, and from 1986 - 2000, he was Associate Editor for Percussive Notes magazine. His published percussion compositions are sold around the world, and he is currently serving as President of the Percussive Arts Society. He is a member of the Latin Percussion (LP) Educational Advisory Board. Upon joining the LP Educational Advisory Board, Rich made the following statement, "It is indeed an honor for me to be able to join LP in our common pursuit of furthering percussion education. LP's decades of leadership in manufacturing, promoting, and education about world percussion is unmatched, and as a member of the Educational Advisory Board I'm looking forward to furthering such high standards."
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