Russell Woollen (born Hartford, Connecticut January 7, 1923, died March 16, 1994) was an American keyboard artist and composer. With composer Robert Evett (1922–1975), and Robert Parris (1924–1999), he was a key figure in what might be considered a "Washington School" of composers that flourished in the 1960s and 1970s. His many compositions, both vocal and instrumental, have been performed throughout the United States and Europe.

Music career

Woollen began his musical training with piano lessons at the age of six. Many of his relatives were active in the church choir, and within a few years he was accompanying them in family sing-alongs. This early connection with the

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and choral music made his high school choice of the Pius X, a minor seminary in New York City, a natural one. "There he signaled his intention to study for the priesthood with a focus on liturgical music."T. L. Ponick: "Seven decades of music: Tributes celebrate composer Charles Russell Woollen's life." The Gazette Packet n Arlington, Virginia newspaperJanuary 7, 1993. During this period, he spent a summer working with Father Franz Wasner at a music camp in New Hampshire and studied organ with Ernest White at the

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of St. Mary the Virgin in New York. Later, Woollen moved to Washington to complete his studies for the priesthood at

Catholic University Catholic higher education includes universities, colleges, and other institutions of higher education privately run by the Catholic Church, typically by religious institutes. Those tied to the Holy See are specifically called pontifical un ...

. He soon assumed the position of organist-choirmaster at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, adjacent to the Catholic University campus. In 1944 he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore, followed by a Master of Arts degree in Romance languages from Catholic University in 1948. Woollen was ordained a priest in 1947. Shortly thereafter he was invited to join the faculty at Catholic University where he was a central figure in the founding of the university's

Benjamin T. Rome School of Music The Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art is the school of arts with the School of Music, Department of Drama, and Department of Art of The Catholic University of America, located in Washington D.C. The school is fully accredited by ...

. He continued to study music with Nicholas Nabokov at the

Peabody Conservatory The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University is a private conservatory and preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1857 and opened in 1866 by merchant/financier and philanthropist George Peabody (1795–186 ...

in Baltimore, and he traveled to

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to study with

Nadia Boulanger Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher and conductor. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist. From a ...

. Between 1953 and 1955 Woollen secured a sabbatical leave to study composition with

Walter Piston Walter Hamor Piston, Jr. (January 20, 1894 – November 12, 1976), was an American composer of classical music, music theorist, and professor of music at Harvard University. Life Piston was born in Rockland, Maine at 15 Ocean Street to Walter ...

at Harvard, which gave him a "rock-bottom confidence nwriting for the orchestra." It was during this period that Woollen's composing gathered momentum. Among the works from this early period are a number of masses and other choral works, and the Toccata for Orchestra (1955), which was "performed by the National Symphony Orchestra to wide acclaim." His first symphony was composed between 1957 and 1961. Another significant early work is Woollen's opera, ''The Decorator'' (1958), which was commissioned by the National Broadcasting Corporation for the network's "Catholic Hour." His sister, Dorothy Woollen Getlein, and brother-in-law, Frank Getlein, were the librettists. This humorous work depicts the turmoil caused by the invasion of a new suburban home by the hired interior decorator, who overwhelms the unsuspecting couple with "the things that can be done to make their house competitive with its neighbors. . ."Joseph McLellan, "Woollen's Stylish 'Decorator'," The Washington Post, January 26, 1993, B8. The opera revived in January 1993 for a series of performances celebrating the composer's seventieth birthday. A second opera, based on texts by Oscar Wilde, was in preparation in 1993, but remained unfinished at the time of the composer's death in 1994.Telephone conversation with Patrick O'Shea, June 3, 1993. The combined pressures of the priesthood, teaching, and the decidedly secular lifestyle of the composer began to weigh heavily on Woollen in the late 1950s and early 1960s: "I was burning the candle at both ends, as they say, and I began to get tremendous headaches. They would hover and descend on me like a black cloud." Woollen left the faculty of

in 1962 and soon thereafter, in 1964, he abandoned the priesthood as well. Between 1964 and 1969 he made the difficult transition to secular life. He remained the keyboard artist for the

National Symphony Orchestra The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1930, its principal performing venue is the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It also performs for the annual National Me ...

, a position he had held since 1956, and in 1969 he accepted a position teaching at

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, where he remained until 1974. Woollen wrote several works during this transitional period, including a setting of Donne's sonnets, ''La Corona'' (1967–71), and the moving ''In martyrum memoriam'' (1968–9), a forty-five-minute cantata for choir, soloists, and orchestra based on texts from the Bible, the

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for Martyrs, and the speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. This work was premiered by the National Symphony on November 16, 1969, and has been performed numerous times since, including a 1979 performance by the

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and

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under

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. Woollen continued to compose prolifically during the 1970s, producing a second symphony (1977–8), Two pieces for Piano and Orchestra (1975–6), and numerous smaller works, both vocal and instrumental. In 1975 he was commissioned by the National Symphony to complete

Robert Evett Robert Evett (16 October 1874 – 15 January 1949) was an English singer, actor, theatre manager and producer. He was best known as a leading man in Edwardian musical comedies and later managed the George Edwardes theatrical empire. In 1892, a ...

's sketch of ''Monadnock'', a cantata for soprano, bass, mixed chorus, and orchestra based on texts by

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. This commission was especially fitting since Woollen and Evett had been close friends for many years. He and his wife, Margaret, were married in 1977. He left the National Symphony in 1980. Since 1982 he had been the organist at the Unitarian Church of Arlington (Virginia), and also served as organist for the Adas Israel Congregation in Washington since the early 1980s. Woollen also served as the musical director for Alexandria, Virginia's Opera Americana, which "specializes in early and contemporary American opera. . ." He continued to write vocal and instrumental works and to teach privately. Although many of his works remain unpublished, his numerous compositions continue to be performed, especially in the mid-Atlantic region. Woollen has influenced many other composers and musicians in the region, both through his university teaching and through personal contact. Russell Woollen died on March 16, 1994, at the University of Virginia Medical Center while visiting Charlottesville. While the career and compositions of Russell Woollen remain under-explored areas of scholarly inquiry, a notable exception to this is the 2011 DMA dissertation of Kevin O’Brien on Woollen’s sacred compositions, which includes a complete catalog of the composer’s works. (See external links.)

References

This article is substantially drawn from Patrick M. O'Shea's ''A Stylistic and Structural Analysis of Russell Woollen's La Corona'', DMA dissertation, Arizona State University, 1995, and is used by permission. (Note: The telephone conversation of June 1993 referenced above is documented more fully in this dissertation.)

External links

Biography at the American Composers Alliance web site

''Russell Woollen: Catalogue and Contextual Examination of the Sacred Music'', Kevin O’Brien (DMA dissertation, The Catholic University of America, 2011

Additional articles

(Listed by work to which they refer) ::Mass for a Great Space :premieres: AM ORG 20:36 Jul 1986 ::Lines of Stephen Crane :AM ENS 4:5 n4 1981 ::In martyrum memoriam :AM CHORAL R 21:16–18 n3 1979 :AM CHORAL R 12:116-17 n3 1970 :BMI p. 8 Jan 1970 :MUS ED J 56:122 Feb 1970 ::Sonata for Trombone and Piano :News Nuggets, INT MUS 70:29 Jun 1972 ::Music for Harp, Oboe and Percussion :AM HARP J 3:15 n2 1971 :AM HARP J 2:11–15 n4 1970 ::Fantasy for Flute and Strings :BMI p. 25 Jun 1969 ::Three Sacred Choruses for Women's Voices and Orchestra :BMI p. 47 Summer 1969 :: arious Works:BMI p. 10 Mar 1967 ::Mass :I. Lowens AM CHORAL R 10:21-2 n1 19647 ::Nativitie :BMI p. 12 Jun 1967 ::Willow Brook Suite 1:BMI p. 9 Jun 1965 ::Suite :BMI p. 15 Oct 1966 ::AmerAllegro :PAN PIPES 55:76 n2 1963 ::Suite for Piano :Concert Hall ACA 10:29 n1 1961 ::The Decorator :MUS AMER 79:14 May 1959 ::Mass for Boy's Voices :NOTES 16:151-2 Dec 1958 ::Improperium :MUS Q 44:381 Jul 1958 ::"Actuaciones del compositor y musicologo Rev. Padre Russell Woollen." :REV MUS CHILENA II:86-7 Aug/Sep 1957 ::Missa melismatica: unison choir and organ :NOTES 13:347 8 Mar 1956 ::Mass in the Major Modes: congregation & double choir :NOTES 13:347 Mar 1956 :CAECILIA 82:231 Sep–Oct 1955 ::Chronicle and Commencement :CATH CHOIRMASTER 40:188 Winter 1954 ::"New Contributing Editor" :CAECILIA 80:58 Jan/Feb 1953 {{DEFAULTSORT:Woollen, Russell American classical composers American male classical composers 20th-century classical composers American classical pianists American male classical pianists 1923 births 1994 deaths Classical musicians from Washington, D.C. Catholic University of America alumni Musicians from Hartford, Connecticut Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art faculty Pupils of Walter Piston Harvard University alumni Peabody Institute alumni Howard University faculty 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century American pianists 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians