{{Short description|American composer (1937–2018)}} {{Infobox person | name = Olly Wilson | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Olly Woodrow Wilson, Jr. | birth_date = {{birth date|1937|09|07}} | birth_place = St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2018|03|12|1937|09|07}} | death_place = Berkeley, California, U.S. | alma_mater = Washington University in St. Louis<br>University of Illinois<br>University of Iowa | occupation = Composer, musicologist | known_for = TIMARA }}
'''Olly Woodrow Wilson, Jr.''' (September 7, 1937 – March 12, 2018) was an American composer of contemporary classical music, pianist, double bassist, and a musicologist. He was one of the most preeminent composers of African American descent in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He is known for developing a list of Heterogenous Sound Ideals that is widely used to dissect different aspects of music, with an emphasis on African culture. According to Wilson himself, "The essence of Africanness consists of a way of doing something, not simply something that is done" (1991). This motto is the basis of Wilson's work in the realm of ethnomusicology. 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.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Zilber|first=Ben|title=TIMARA: Technology in Music and the Related Arts|url=http://oberlin.edu/alummag/summer2007/features/timara.html|magazine=Oberlin Alumni Magazine|volume=103|number=1|date=Summer 2007|access-date=2014-02-22|archive-date=2016-07-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160721195332/http://www.oberlin.edu/alummag/summer2007/features/timara.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==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 and Philip Bezanson. He earned a PhD from the University of Iowa in 1964.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wright |first=Josephine R. B. |date=Fall 2018 |title=In Remembrance: Olly Wilson: Society for American Music Bulletin |url= |journal=Society for American Music Bulletin |volume=44 |issue=3 |pages=34–36}}</ref>
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, Robert Greenberg, Valerie Samson 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.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://marilynmason.life/media/1980-Jul-25-Harford-CT.pdf |title=The Tenth Anniversary International Contemporary Music Festival |date=1980 |type=Music festival program notes |publisher=Hartt School of Music / University of Hartford}}</ref>
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 died March 12, 2018, in Berkeley, California at the age of 80.<ref>{{cite web |last=Sandomir |first=Richard |date=March 23, 2018 |title=Olly Wilson, 80, Dies; Composer Meshed African and Western Music |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/obituaries/olly-wilson-80-dies-composer-meshed-african-and-western-music.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180325142814/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/obituaries/olly-wilson-80-dies-composer-meshed-african-and-western-music.html |archive-date=March 25, 2018 |access-date=March 25, 2018 |work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Iwata |first=Miyako |date=March 20, 2018 |title=UC Berkeley music professor emeritus Olly Wilson dies at 80, remembered for integrity |url=http://www.dailycal.org/2018/03/19/uc-berkeley-music-professor-emeritus-olly-wilson-dies-80-remembered-integrity/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180325144949/http://www.dailycal.org/2018/03/19/uc-berkeley-music-professor-emeritus-olly-wilson-dies-80-remembered-integrity/ |archive-date=March 25, 2018 |access-date=March 25, 2018 |work=The Daily Californian}}</ref>
== Heterogeneous sound ideals == Olly Wilson contributed to the study of African and American 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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Avorgbedor |first1=Daniel |last2=Pyne |first2=James |date=1999-10-01 |title=Voiced noise: The ''heterogeneous sound ideal'' as preferred acoustic environment in selective sub-Saharan African instruments and ensembles |url=https://asa.scitation.org/doi/10.1121/1.427227 |journal=The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America |volume=106 |issue=4 |pages=2169 |doi=10.1121/1.427227 |bibcode=1999ASAJ..106.2169A |issn=0001-4966|url-access=subscription }}</ref> His heterogenous sound ideals are still used today to help identify different aspects of sounds in music.
==Awards and honors== {{unsourced section|date=October 2023}} *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<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brack |first=Naomii |date=2020-09-16 |title=Olly Woodrow Wilson, Jr. (1937–2018) • |url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/olly-woodrow-wilson-jr-1937-2018/ |access-date=2024-02-24 |language=en-US}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading==
*{{cite journal |first1=Eileen |last1=Southern |author-link1=Eileen Southern |first2=Olly |last2=Wilson |title=Olly Wilson: The Education of a Composer |journal=The Black Perspective in Music |volume=6 |number=1 |date=Spring 1978 |pages=57–70|doi=10.2307/1214303 |jstor=1214303 }}
==External links== *{{AllMusic |class=artist |id=olly-wilson-mn0002157522}} *[http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/short-bio/2781 Olly Wilson] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140520220322/http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/short-bio/2781 |date=2014-05-20 }} biography at the Music Sales Group *[http://www.bruceduffie.com/ollywilson.html Olly Wilson interview], February 4, 1991
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Olly}} Category:1937 births Category:2018 deaths Category:20th-century American classical composers Category:20th-century American male composers Category:African-American classical composers Category:African-American male classical composers Category:University of Iowa alumni Category:American classical double-bassists Category:American male double-bassists Category:American classical pianists Category:American male classical pianists Category:Oberlin Conservatory of Music faculty Category:University of California, Berkeley faculty Category:Musicians from Berkeley, California Category:Florida A&M University faculty Category:Washington University in St. Louis alumni Category:Musicians from St. Louis Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Category:Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area Category:American contemporary classical composers Category:American male classical composers Category:Experimental Music Studios alumni Category:20th-century American pianists Category:African-American classical pianists Category:20th-century American male pianists