Darryl Singleton

Dr. Darryl M Singleton is an educator and creative artist from Washington, DC. His principal instruments are percussion and drums. He earned his bachelor degree from Howard University and completed graduate programs at Florida State and Boston University. Singleton taught at Duke Ellington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, University of the District of Columbia, Grambling State University, and Texas Southern University where he served nearly three decades on the staff of the “Ocean of Soul” marching band. Singleton has performed professionally in various genres including with Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, The Conrad Johnson Orchestra, The Shreveport Symphony, and the Washington Idaho Symphony Orchestra.

Currently at Washington State University, “Doc D” serves as Assistant Professor of Black Music in America and Social Justice. He is also Jazz Area Coordinator, teaches jazz percussion and performs with the faculty jazz ensemble. Additionally, He established and leads WSU’s world music ensemble, “Crimson Ties.”

Singleton’s parents were creatives, exposing him to many styles and mediums of expression during the late 1960s and into the 1970s, a time where Black artistic expression was the voice of the “Civil Rights Era.” The awareness and appreciation for diasporic aesthetic gained during those formative years influences his artistic endeavors to this day. His original music is mostly jazz, which he considers, “powerful because of the freedom it gives musicians to emote and express in the moment, albeit over established musical themes.” Sounds of Jazz and Afro-Carribean music styles are prevalent in Singleton’s original compositions, and in his various professional bands specializing in jazz and world music.