George Wallace Woodworth (Choral Conductor, Organ)

Born: November 6, 1902 - Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Died: July 18, 1969 - Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

The American choral conductor, organist, and music educator, G(eorge) Wallace Woodworth, was educated at Harvard University (BA, 1924; MA, 1926). Then he studied conducting with Malcolm Sargent at the Royal College of Music in London from 1927 to 1928.

In 1924, G. Wallace Woodworth joined the staff of the music department at Harvard, and was engaged as conductor of the Radcliffe Choral Society. He also led the Pierian Sodality Orchestra of Harvard University from 1928 to 1932, and the Harvard Glee Club from 1933. In 1940 he was appointed organist and choirmaster for the Harvard University Chapel. He was made James Edward Ditson Professor of Music at Harvard in 1954. He conducted the Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus on its transcontinental USA tour in 1954, and took the Harvard Glee Club on its European tour in 1956. In 1958 he was invited by the Boston Symphony Orchestra to conduct performances of J.S. Bach's B Minor Mass (BWV 232). The year marked his 25^th with the Harvard Glee Club, his 34^th with the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the 100^th Anniversary of the Harvard Glee Club. He retired from the conductorship of those two organizations that year, but continued teaching through the day before he passed away in 1969.

G. Wallace Woodworth published The World of Music (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1964).

Source: Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of 20^th Century Classical Musicians (1997); Frederic H. Ford, Ph.D. (March 2008)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (January 2005); Frederic H. Ford, Ph.D. (March 2008)

Recordings of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

Conductor

As

Works

Serge Koussevitzky

Chorus Master

BWV 232 [unofficial recording], BWV 243 [unofficial recording], BWV 244 [sung in English]

G. Wallace Woodworth

Conductor

BWV 106

Links to other Sites