Darry Dolezal is a veteran concert artist, performing in thousands of venues from Carnegie Hall to the Copacabana Palace. His live performances have been heard on radio and television stations throughout North America, South America and Europe, and his recordings are issued on the Albany, Capstone, Centaur and CRI/New World labels.
In a wide-ranging career Dolezal has played works for solo cello (many written for him), concertos, a superabundance of chamber music and a smattering of things hard to categorize.
Darry Dolezal was the stand partner of Gabor Rejto in a cello choir conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich; he shared the stage with a Samba band in Rio de Janeiro; he collaborated with dancers and choreographers at Jacob’s Pillow; he threw a fit onstage as part of a performance of Donald Martino’s From the Other Side (Martino coached him on this); and he was on reality television during CBC coverage of the Banff International String Quartet Competition.
A chamber music enthusiast, much of Dolezal’s career has focused on chamber ensembles such as the Thoreau Piano Trio, the Esterhazy Quartet, the Artaria Quartet and many others. He believes that if everyone could experience chamber music the world would be a better place.
Dolezal is also an ardent advocate for contemporary music – the cutting-edge music of our time. He enjoys collaborating with composers in the creation of sounds that have never been heard before and has given the world premieres of over two hundred works, including pieces by Samuel Adler, Michael Ching, David Kraehenbuehl, Thomas Oboe Lee, Marjorie Merryman, Bill Pfaff, David Rakowski, and Dalit Warshaw to name just a few. He started a new music festival at Viterbo College in Wisconsin and was co-founder of the Warebrook Contemporary Music Festival in Vermont.
In 1992 Dolezal won a prestigious National Endowment for the Arts Rural Residency, sharing his belief in chamber music with the residents of Tift County, Georgia. He then took an Artist-in-Residence position at Viterbo College followed by a faculty position at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he was cellist of one of America’s longest-standing Resident Ensembles, the Esterhazy Quartet. He is currently cellist of the Boston-based Thoreau Piano Trio, performing thoughtful and transcendent concerts across the United States and in historic New England venues.
Darry Dolezal was designated a “musician of note” in 2006 by the U.S. Department of State, traveling to Brazil through a Partners of the Americas cultural exchange program to play concerts and present masterclasses. In return he received an immersion into Brazil’s musical, social and culinary life. Ask him what it’s like to eat things that grow wild in the Amazonian jungle, or how it feels to play Villa-Lobos in Rio, or how to make a killer caipirinha.
Darry Dolezal’s principal cello teachers were Raymond Stuhl (a student of the renowned cellist Hugo Becker), Edward Laut and Yehuda Hanani. He received degrees in cello performance from the Peabody Conservatory and the University of Kansas. Dolezal immersed himself into the rich, deep ocean of musical heritage, studying chamber music with legendary artists such as Leon Fleisher, Raphael Hillyer, Eugene Lehner, Menachem Pressler, Alexander Schneider, Leonard Shure, Karen Tuttle and Donald Weilerstein. Here's just one example of these amazing connections: Eugene Lehner was a student of the violinist Jenö Hubay, who gave the first performance of Brahms’ 3rd piano trio - with Brahms at the piano!
A devoted educator, Darry Dolezal has taught eager and inquisitive musicians for decades, coaching and mentoring cello and chamber music students from beginners to professionals. In addition to faculty positions at Viterbo College and the University of Missouri, Dolezal has been an invited guest for masterclasses at Boston University, Bowdoin College, the Carlos Gomes Conservatory in Belém, Brazil, Florida State University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and numerous other fine colleges and conservatories. His former students include successful professional musicians and the recipients of many awards and honors.