Background
He was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, to Alma Grace Peoples Wilson, a seamstress, and Olly Woodrow Wilson, Senior, an insurance salesman and butler.
He was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, to Alma Grace Peoples Wilson, a seamstress, and Olly Woodrow Wilson, Senior, an insurance salesman and butler.
He graduated with a B.M. degree from Washington University in Saint Louis in 1959, and earned an M.M. degree in music composition in 1960 from the University of Illinois.
He is one of the preeminent living composers of African American descent. 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 His composition instructors included Robert Wykes, Robert Kelley, and Philip Bezanson.
He earned a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Iowa in 1964.
Wilson has taught at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (1965-1970). He is currently an emeritus professor of music at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught since 1970, retiring in 2002.
He also served as the chairman of that university"s music department between 1993 and 1997. He has been commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and New York Philharmonic.
In 1995 he was elected to The American Academy of Arts and Letters.
In 1971, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship, which he used to live in West Africa, where he studied African music and languages. Wilson"s music is published by Gunmar Music (a division of G Schirmer). His music has been recorded on the Columbia, Cryptography Research Inc, Desto, Turnabout, and New World labels.
Wilson is married and lives in Berkeley, California.
American Academy of Arts and Letters.