music.wikisort.org - Composer

Olly Woodrow Wilson, Jr. (September 7, 1937 – March 12, 2018) was an American composer of contemporary classical music, pianist, double bassist, and musicologist. He was one of the preeminent composers of African American descent in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He is also known for establishing the TIMARA (Technology in Music and Related Arts) program at Oberlin Conservatory, the first-ever conservatory program in electronic music.[1]

Olly Wilson
Born	Olly Woodrow Wilson, Jr. (1937-09-07)September 7, 1937 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Died	March 12, 2018(2018-03-12) (aged 80) Berkeley, California, U.S.
Alma mater	Washington University in St. Louis University of Illinois
Occupation	Composer, musician, musicologist
Known for	TIMARA

Biography

Wilson was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Alma Grace Peoples Wilson, a seamstress, and Olly Woodrow Wilson, Sr., an insurance salesman and butler. He graduated with a B.M. degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1959, and earned an M.M. degree in music composition in 1960 from the University of Illinois. His composition instructors included Robert Wykes, Robert Kelley, and Philip Bezanson. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1964.

Wilson taught at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (1965-1970). He was an emeritus professor of music at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught from 1970 to 2002 when he retired. He also served as the chairman of that university's music department between 1993 and 1997. His notable students include Neil Rolnick, Dwight Banks, Robert Greenberg, Tony Williams (jazz drummer) and Frank La Rocca.

He was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony and New York Philharmonic. He was commissioned by the 1979 International Contemporary Organ Music Festival at the Hartt School of Music for his organ work Expansions, which was premiered at the festival by Donald Sutherland.[2]

Wilson's music is published by Gunmar Music (a division of G. Schirmer). His music has been recorded on the Columbia, CRI, Desto, Turnabout, and New World labels.

Wilson also contributed to the study of African music by defining Heterogeneous Sound Ideals that involve common themes in traditional African music: such as use of aspects of sound (pitch, duration, timbre and volume), usage of physical body movement in music making, and introspection of listeners. [3]

Wilson died on March 12, 2018, at the age of 80.[4][5]

Awards and honors

• Elected to The American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1995
• Received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1971, which he used to live in West Africa, where he studied African music and languages.
• Received a Rome Prize, 2008

Bibliography

• Southern, Eileen; Wilson, Olly (Spring 1978). "Olly Wilson: The Education of a Composer". The Black Perspective in Music. 6 (1): 57–70. doi:10.2307/1214303. JSTOR 1214303.

References

External links

• Olly Wilson at AllMusic
• Olly Wilson biography at the Music Sales Group
• Olly Wilson interview, February 4, 1991

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