Williamson, John Finley
Williamson, John Finley
Williamson, John Finley, distinguished American choral conductor and music educator; b. Canton, Ohio, June 23, 1887; d. Toledo, Ohio, May 28, 1964. He studied at Otterbein Coll. in Westerville, Ohio (graduated, 1911); then studied singing with Herbert Wilbur Greene, Herbert Witherspoon, and David Bispham in N.Y. and organ with Karl Sträube in Leipzig. He became minister of music at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Dayton, Ohio, where he founded a choir in 1920; in 1926 he founded the Westminster Choir School there. In 1929 he moved it to Ithaca, N.Y., and in 1932 to Princeton, N.J., where it later became Westminster Choir Coll.; he was its president until 1958. He led its choir on many tours of the U.S. and took it on 4 world tours. He ed. the Westminster Series of choral music.
Bibliography
D. Wehr, J.F. W. (1887-1964): His Life and Contribution to Choral Music (diss., Miami Univ., Oxford, Ohio, 1971).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire