Bass Trombone

Zac Hollister has served over 18 years in the U.S. Navy as a Concert/Ceremonial bass trombonist with both the U.S. Navy Band in Washington, D.C. and Naval Academy Band. He has appeared as a soloist, clinician and in recordings, on national tours, as a substitute with the Commodores Jazz Ensemble and in numerous full honors funeral services at Arlington National Cemetery. With the Navy Band, Zac has performed live on NPR, on the Today Show in New York City, at the Norwegian Military Tattoo in Oslo, several shows at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, and in concerts collaborating with Grammy Award winners Eighth Blackbird and Mannheim Steamroller. He has played at such venues as the White House, Pentagon, U.S. Capitol, Navy Memorial, Blues Alley, Strathmore, Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, and Oriole Park at Camden Yards; for U.S. Presidental inaugurations, state funerals, White House arrival ceremonies for the Prime Ministers of Japan and Australia, and at events honoring Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps, and Astronauts Neil Armstrong and James Lovell.

As a freelance musician, Zac has performed as a substitute with the Boston Pops, the Baltimore, Harrisburg, Annapolis, Delaware, Maryland, and Vermont Symphony Orchestras, the National, Rhode Island, and Boston Philharmonic Orchestras, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra; as well as with the Triton Brass Quintet, Clipper City Brass Quintet, Washington Trombone Ensemble, and Monomoy Theatre. He performs regularly with the Apollo Orchestra, and was previously a member of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra and the Brass of the Potomac. He has performed shows at Monomoy Theatre on Cape Cod, with the Callithumpian Consort, and the Waitiki 7, as well as recording the music for the 'Price of Freedom: Americans at War' exhibition video on display at the Gehring Center of the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History. As a bass trombonist in big bands, Zac has performed with Bob Brookmeyer, Dave Samuels, Wayne Bergeron, Steve Wilson, and Roberto Quintero, as well as for band leaders Chris Vadala, Darcy James Argue, and George Russell.

Zac holds a Bachelor of Music from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and a Master of Music degree from the University of Maryland. He additionally attended Le Domaine Forget Music Academy in Quebec, Canada. He studied trombone with Douglas Yeo, Matthew Guilford, Murray Crewe, and Carl Jackson.