A Pennsylvania native born in Bradford County is credited with helping make music a regular part of school curriculums across the country and is known throughout the world of education both in the United States and Europe.

Hollis Dann was born in Canton, Pennsylvania in 1861 to a musical family. During Canton’s 150^th Anniversary celebration in 1950, the Canton Independent-Sentinel carried a detailed story on Dann’s life, and the life he remembered growing up.

"As a child, my home was strongly influenced by music. Prior to my school days and throughout the years in elementary school I listened, and later, with my mother and sister, joined in the singing of hymns every night after dinner and on Sunday, led by my grandfather. Although over seventy years old (he sang after he was eighty) grandfather would turn to father and sound the key singing 'm- faddle-la', do-se-do, or la-me-la and then start the hymn singing the bass. I was particularly interested and often very much excited by the hymns set to tunes such as "Broad is the Road that Leads to Death."

At the age of ten Hollis began to study piano, and his sister was serving as instructor. Five years later he was able to play accompaniments for his father, who often during the winter taught singing school and conducted musical "conventions". Dann wrote, "These singing schools were organized in our home village of Canton and in communities within a radius of twenty miles. During the winter father would be in a different district every afternoon and evening of the week, holding a children's class in the afternoon and an adult class in the evening.

 “There was no music in the public schools. Each singing school, consisting of twenty term, lessons, was followed by a "MuConvention" held in a local church. The singing school class augmented by the church choir and other experienced singers of the village, sessions were held morning, afternoon, and evening, beginning Monday morning and closing with a grand concert on Saturday night, when a stage was built for the chorus.

"Beginning at the age of ten I attended these conventions conducted by my father, every winter, singing alto. At fifteen I began to serve as an accompanist for my father, playing the cabinet organ. While in my teens I attended and sang in musical conventions conducted by N. Coe Stewart and L. O. Emerson, who were nationally known conductors of that day."

Upon graduation from Canton High School in 1879 he accepted the opportunity to teach a summer term in the country. The following fall he was employed to teach in the "grammar" grades of the Canton schools.

He studied music in Boston before returning to his hometown to teach music lessons and lead a church choir and community chorus. In 1886, he became principal of the academy at Havana, New York (now Montour Falls).

In 1887, Dann was hired to teach penmanship in the public schools in Ithaca with the promise that he could also begin instruction in music. After the founding of the Ithaca Conservatory of Music in 1892, Dann served on the school's executive committee.

On a night in the winter of 1889, the Choral Club in Ithaca was to perform Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance" the cast to include Lois Hanford as "Mabel" and Hollis Dann as "Frederick." The curtain rose late that evening, for the members had discovered an engagement ring on the hand of "Mabel". Lois Hanford and Hollis Dann were married the next summer.

In 1889, Dann became director of the Cornell University Glee Club, a position he would hold for 32 years. After judging a local band competition in 1894, Dann helped persuade band leader Patrick Conway to relocate to Ithaca to form the Ithaca Band, teach at the Ithaca Conservatory, and lead the Cornell Cadet Band (now the Cornell Big Red Marching Band.) Dann was hired by Cornel in 1903 as an instructor of music to begin a department of music at the university. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1904 and full professor in 1907.

From 1910 to 1921, Dann organized a summer school at Cornell for teachers and supervisors of music, training hundreds of music teachers. Besides teaching music education and technique, the program also included music appreciation and community music, and it was one of the first institutions to offer training in instrumental supervision.

Dann was very active as a leader in music education on the state and national levels. He chaired the music council of New York state from 1910 to 1921 and was chair of music examinations for the New York State Board of Regents and a member of the New York State Music Syllabus Committee, which standardized music teaching.

In 1921, Dann left Ithaca to become state music director in Pennsylvania, providing oversight for music education at all ages and levels of education. He developed a statewide curriculum and was a strong proponent of community singing.

He is perhaps best known as the author and editor of numerous songbooks and music teacher manuals. He authored the eight-volume Hollis Dann Music Course and the five-volume Hollis Dann Song Series. He also edited a popular school hymnal and a songbook of Christmas carols, possibly the first to publish the music and lyrics together for "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear".

At the age of 63, Dann joined the faculty of New York University in 1925, remaining until retirement in 1936. He founded the Department of Music Education and oversaw the first graduate work there in the subject. He continued to teach workshops and guest conduct festival choirs and state choirs around the country until shortly before his death.

He died at his home in Douglaston, New York on January 3, 1939. Hollis Dann is buried at Lake View Cemetery in Ithaca, New York.