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David Dillard

David Dillard, Director of Graduate Studies, Professor

Voice

Baritone David Dillard enjoys a career that encompasses both teaching and performing. Now in his twelfth year at Southern Illinois University, Dr. Dillard teaches applied voice, lyric diction, opera history, and voice pedagogy. Professionally, he appears most summers at Union Avenue Opera and the Southern Illinois Music Festival.

His eclectic operatic repertoire includes both comprimario and leading roles such as Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale, Escamillo in Carmen, the Police Sergeant in Pirates of Penzance, Polyphemus in Acis and Galatea, Owen Hart in Dead Man Walking, and Gunther in Götterdämmerung just to name a few. He has also performed with Florida Grand Opera, DiCapo Opera Theater, Austin Lyric Opera, Tanglewood Music Festival, and Lake George Opera.

In addition to opera, Dr. Dillard is passionate about art song. In 2015, he coached Jake Heggie’s song cycle A Question of Light with the composer. He has performed Schubert’s Winterreise with internationally acclaimed collaborative pianist Martin Katz at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio. At the Franz-Schubert-Institut in Baden bei Wien, Austria, Dr. Dillard studied with Wolfgang Holzmair, Elly Ameling and Helmut Deutsch, among others.

David Dillard Office: ALT 205
Phone: 618-453-5823
Email: ddillard@siu.edu

In 2016, Dr. Dillard taught at Opera Theatre of St. Louis’ Spring Training Program and participated in the McClosky Institute for Voice Summer Seminar in Redlands, CA. In 2015, he completed Levels I and II of Jeannette LoVetri’s Somatic Voicework TM and in 2007 he was a NATS intern. He earned music degrees from Principia College, The University of Texas at Austin and The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Courses

  • MUS 140P-540P: Applied Voice
  • MUS 470: The History of Opera