Phillip Collister, music director & conductor, is an Associate Professor of Voice/Opera at Towson University where he has been a member of the music faculty since 1998.  At Towson, Dr. Collister is head of the Voice Division and is producer and director of Towson’s Music for the Stage program. At Towson he also teaches private voice, vocal pedagogy, and vocal literature courses. 

    Collister has an extensive background as a conductor and stage director of operas and musicals.  He has produced, directed, or conducted numerous operas, musicals, cabarets and revues including  (operas) Dido and Aeneas, The Magic Flute, Cosi fan tutte, The Wandering Scholar, The Face on the Barroom Floor, The Stoned Guest, Mahagonny Songspiel, Die Dreigroschenoper,  Riders to the Sea, The Medium, The Old Maid an the Thief, A Hand of Bridge, Trouble in Tahitti, Too Many Sopranos, Green Eggs and Ham, Sid the Serpent Who Wanted to  Sing, and others,   (musicals) Ragtime: The Musical, Cabaret, Gypsy, A Little Night Music, Godspell, Forever Plaid, Hair, How to Succeed in Business, Little Shop of Horrors, Chicago, Teddy and Alice, The Fantastics & others,  (revues & cabarets) Cole, Broadway Bound, Beehive, A Weill Cabaret, It’s Oh So Quiet: Hollywood Composers in Exile, When I Fall in Love, Golden Years: an operetta revue and others. 

    From 2001-2006 Collister was the producing director and music director for the Maryland Arts Festival.  From 2001-2003 Collister was the conductor of the opera studio at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival.  He also has an extensive background as a choral conductor including works conducted with professional orchestras such as Messiah, (Handel), Magnificat (Bach), Gloria (Vivaldi and Rutter), Requiem (Faure and Mozart) and numerous other chamber works.

     Dr. Collister is also an active solo singer having performed extensively as a soloist in musical theatre, opera, oratorio, and recital.  He has performed frequently with the Bach Sinfonia in Washington D.C., the  Handel  Choir of Baltimore and the Baltimore Opera.  He has also performed is  soloist with the Washington Bach Consort, the Maryland Handel Festival & Smithsonian Chamber Players, and internationally at the Handel Festival in Halle, Germany. He maintains an active solo concert schedule which has included performances at St. Peter's Concert Series (New York City), a recital tour of American Art Song in both the United States and in Germany as well as numerous recitals at Towson University.  Collister holds a DMA in Voice & Opera from University of Maryland (College Park), a Masters of Music and Performance Certificate in Voice & Opera from Northwestern University (Evanston), and Bachelor of Arts in Music/Theatre from Marycrest College (Davenport, Iowa).