Discipline: Music Composition

Donald Wilson

Discipline: Music Composition
Region: Lambertville, MI
MacDowell Fellowships: 1972, 1974
More: composers.com/donald-m-wilson
Donald Wilson studied composition with Karel Husa and Robert Palmer at Cornell University and with Gunther Schuller at the Berkshire Music Center (Tanglewood). In 1965 Wilson became the first music director of the educational FM station in Philadelphia now known as WHYY-FM. Now a professor emeritus at Bowling Green State University, Wilson joined the BGSU music faculty in 1967, taught music theory, analysis, and composition for 31 years and chaired the Music Composition/History Department for two four-year terms (1973-77; 1994-98). From 1983 to 1995 Wilson produced more than 80 one-hour programs in the annual "New Music Festival" radio series for national distribution. A member of the American Music Center since 1964 and a member of the American Composers Alliance since 1967, Wilson became a founding member of the Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers in 1995. Three years later he was elected to the latter organization's Board of Directors.

Studios

Sprague-Smith

Donald Wilson worked in the Sprague-Smith studio.

In January of 1976, the original Sprague-Smith Studio — built in 1915–1916 and funded by music students of Mrs. Charles Sprague-Smith of the Veltin School — was destroyed by fire. Redesigned by William Gnade, Sr., a Peterborough builder, the fieldstone structure was rebuilt the same year from the foundation up, reusing the original fieldstone. A few…

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