(b. 27 August 1924, Berkeley, California – d. 29 October 2003, Rocklin, California).

American composer of mostly stage, orchestral, chamber, and choral works that have been performed in Europe and North America.

Prof. Hollingsworth studied piano with William J. Erlendson at San Jose State University in California from 1941–44 and piano privately with Harald Logan in Berkeley from 1944–46. He studied composition with Darius Milhaud at Mills College in Oakland, California from 1944–46 and with Gian Carlo Menotti at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia from 1948–50.

Among his honours were the Prix de Rome (1955–58), the Guggenheim Fellowship (1958) and a residency at the Ossabaw Island Project in Georgia (1973–75), as well as residencies at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, California, Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Virginia, and the artist colony Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, New York. He received commissions from the Alden and Vada Dow Family Foundations, the Curtis Institute of Music, the estate Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D. C., pianist Fedora Horowitz, the Meadow Book Music Festival in Michigan, NBC, and the National Endowment for the Arts, among other organisations.

He was also active in other positions. He worked as a composer and orchestrator for the Harkness Ballet in New York, New York from 1963–70 and as a stage director of operas in Austria and Turkey from 1970–72.

He taught composition and orchestration as an assistant to Gian Carlo Menotti at the Curtis Institute of Music from 1949–55 and lectured on composition, counterpoint, harmony, and piano at San Jose State University from 1961–63. He served as composer-in-residence and taught composition, music theory and orchestration at Oakland University in Rochester Hills, Michigan from 1976–93, where he retired as Professor Emeritus.

His large-scale works are archived in the Edwin A. Fleisher Collection of Orchestral Music at the Free Library of Philadelphia, but all other works are archived at Oakland University. In addition, nearly nine hours of interviews with the composer are archived as part of the project Oral History, American Music at Yale University.

He used the pseudonym Stanley Hollier for a few early works. In addition to the works listed below, Prof. Hollingsworth composed incidental music and made orchestrations of music by Gabriel Fauré, Gian Carlo Menotti and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

SELECT LIST OF WORKS (note that dates given often refer to premières; that many works contain material from earlier works, but these similarities are not mentioned; and that early works that were incorporated into later works are also not mentioned)

STAGE:

The Mother (opera in 1 act, libretto by the composer, John Fandel, after Hans Christian Andersen), 1949 (may be performed as a trilogy with The Selfish Giant and Harrison Loved His Umbrella)

La Grande Bretèche (opera in 1 act, libretto by the composer, Harry Duncan, after Honoré de Balzac), 1954

The Unquiet Graves (ballet in 1 act, choreography by John Butler), 1958

The Selfish Giant (opera in 1 act, libretto by the composer, after Oscar Wilde), 1981 (may be performed as a trilogy with The Mother and Harrison Loved His Umbrella)

Harrison Loved His Umbrella (opera/musical cartoon in 1 act, libretto by the composer, Rhoda Levine), 1981 (may be performed as a trilogy with The Mother and The Selfish Giant)

ORCHESTRAL:

I Saltimbanchi, flute, oboe, clarinet, harp, string orchestra, 1960 (version of chamber work)

Concerto, piano, orchestra, 1980

Divertimento, 1982

Three Ladies beside the Sea (text by Rhoda Levine), speaker, small orchestra, 1984

Concerto Lirico, violin, orchestra, 1991

CHAMBER MUSIC:

Sonata, oboe, piano, 1949

I Saltimbanchi, flute, oboe, clarinet, harp, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass, 1960 (also version for flute, oboe, clarinet, harp, string orchestra)

Three Impromptus, flute, piano, 1974

Ricordanza (in memoriam Samuel Barber), oboe, violin, viola, cello, 1981

Academic Festival Procession, 2 French horns, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, timpani, 1984

Reflections and Diversions, clarinet, piano, 1985

CHORAL:

Dumbarton Oaks Mass, mixed chorus, string orchestra/orchestra, 1953

Stabat Mater, mixed chorus, orchestra, 1957

A Song of David (text from the Book of Psalms), tenor, mixed chorus, orchestra, c. 1960s

Death Be Not Proud (text by John Donne), mixed chorus, piano, 1978 (also version for mixed chorus, orchestra, c. 1980)

VOCAL:

Five Songs (text by Emily Dickinson), voice, piano, 1960 (also versions for voice, harp, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass, 1960; voice, harp, string orchestra, 1960)

PIANO:

Five Fancies in Six Minutes, 2000 (incomplete)