Ray
Dillard
Originally
from Texas, Ray Dillard has a rich and varied musical background.
His career began with 8 years in the Amarillo
Symphony Orchestra. Several
College and University teaching posts culminated with Ray serving for 13 years
on the Music and Audio Engineering faculty at San
Jacinto College Central in Houston, Texas.
The
Paul (English) Improvising Chamber Orchestra, P.I.C.O.,
was at the center of Ray’s Houston-based performance environment. P.I.C.O.
developed a unique repertoire spanning jazz and classical idioms, showcasing
Ray’s eclectic percussion battery. Performances
with the World Drum Ensemble have
taken him to Canada and Australia for performances during the Australian
Bicentennial celebration at the World Expo 88 site in Brisbane, Australia. In
March 1996, he performed with BUKA,
an eight member all-star ensemble made up of members of the larger World Drum
Ensemble, in Taipei, Taiwan. They were the featured group of the Taipei
International Music Festival. In the summer of 1998, BUKA were the featured
performers at a concert in Lisbon, Portugal for EXPO ‘98. In the summer of
2000, The World Drum Ensemble took the stage again in Hannover, Germany for EXPO
2000. January of 2004 found Ray on tour in Japan in a chamber music quintet. Ray
currently resides in Toronto, Canada where he works full time as the Business
Manager for the percussion ensemble NEXUS.
Ray remains busy as a performer and is on the faculty of the Royal
Conservatory of Music in Toronto.
Recording credits include projects with artists and ensembles from the United States, South America, Europe, Japan and Canada. His recording work with the Toronto-based percussion ensemble NEXUS includes some 13 titles, the most recent being "Drumtalker". These and other percussion rich works are at the core of his most popular work. Ray’s work can also be heard on recordings spanning styles as varied as Renaissance, Classical, jazz, rock, contemporary Christian, Tejano, and experimental music.
Seminars include: