G. WALLACE “WOODY” WOODWORTH

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 25th with the Harvard Glee Club, his 34th with the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the 100th 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.