Phillip Collister-Murray, DMA

Biography

Phillip Collister-Murray, Professor of Voice and Voice Division Leader, earned a DMA in Voice & Opera from University of Maryland College Park, Master of Music and Doctoral Performance Certificate in Voice & Opera from Northwestern University, and Bachelor of Arts in Music/Theatre from Marycrest College. Collister-Murray teaches Applied Voice, Vocal Pedagogy, Music for the Stage, & Opera Outreach Ensemble, and serves as Voice Division Leader for the Department of Music.  From 2017-2024 he served as Department Chairperson. He is also a member of quinTUs, Towson’s faculty vocal quintet. 

Prof. Collister-Murray has performed extensively as a soloist in opera, oratorio, and recital and has performed with the Washington Bach Consort, Washington Bach Sinfonia, Handel Choir of Baltimore, Maryland Handel Festival, Bach in Baltimore, Baltimore Opera, Maryland Opera, and internationally at the Handel Festival in Halle, Germany. He served as the Music Director of Young Victorian Theatre Company in Baltimore from 2009-2016 and has served as conductor for Baltimore Concert Opera and as artist faculty/opera conductor at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival. From 2001-2006 he served as Producing Artistic Director of the Maryland Arts Festival (2001-2006). Collister-Murray’s professional chamber music trio, Trio Montage [clarinet, voice & piano], has performed at International Clarinet Festivals in Italy, Ireland, and the United States championing and disseminating new chamber music works.  As a recitalist he has performed at Carnegie Hall, St. Peter's Concert Series (NYC), and recital tours in both the United States and Germany as well as numerous recitals at Towson University and the Mid-Atlantic region. 

In his role as Music Director of Towson's Music for the Stage and Opera Outreach Ensemble, Collister-Murray collaborates in producing fully staged operas, musicals, workshop programs and operas for K-8 students across Maryland.  His opera and musical theatre directing and/or conducting credits include Orpheus in the Underworld, Le Nozze di Figaro, The Magic Flute, Così fan tutte, The Medium, Mahagonny Songspiel, The Threepenny Opera, Dido and Aneas, Pirates of Penzance, Iolanthe, Yeomen of the Guard, The Mikado, The Gondoliers, Riders to the Sea, The Wandering Scholar, and (musicals) Into the Woods, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Ragtime, Gypsy, How to Succeed in Business, Hair, among many others.  He has been responsible for producing, coordinating and helping to obtain significant funding for several concert and opera festivals and special international events including the Kurt Weill Festival (2010), Opera Week (2011), and a long-standing educational exchange program with Oldenburg University, Germany. 

Collister-Murray also serves as Music Director of the Roland Park Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, Md.