Donald Gillis (1912-1978)
Don Gillis was a prolific composer, arranger, and music educator. He began his career in radio in Dallas, Texas in the 1930s and rose to become a well-travelled conductor and composer in the 1940s and a radio producer for NBC's Symphony of the Air during the Toscanini era. In the 1960s and 1970s he worked with the Interlochen Music Camp and joined the faculties of Southern Methodist University. Dallas Baptist College, and the University of South Carolina. Gillis composed in virtually all contemporary styles and genres. His music is engaging, accessible, and often satirical and humorous with whimsical titles. He especially enjoyed native musical idioms of jazz, be-bop, and the blues and his compositions often reflect a wonderful sense of regional flavor and Americana.
Early Years
Don Gillis was born in Cameron, Missouri, on June 17, 1912. He and his family moved in 1931 to Fort Worth, Texas, where he attended Texas Christian University and studied composition with Keith Mixson. At TCU Gillis played trombone in and served as assistant director of the university band and wrote music for two musicals.
Gillis also played trombone in the staff orchestra of radio station WBAP from 1932 to 1935 and directed a symphony orchestra of his own at Polytechnic Baptist Church from 1935 to 1942. He earned a B.M. degree at TCU in 1935 and continued to serve on the faculty there until 1942. Gillis also taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary during this period. He did graduate work in composition at North Texas State University in Denton in 1942 and was awarded his M.M. degree in 1943. He also attended Louisiana State and Columbia universities.
The NBC Years
In 1942 Gillis became production director for radio station WBAP. In December 1943 he transferred to the NBC affiliate in Chicago. A year later he went to New York to become producer and scriptwriter for the NBC Symphony Orchestra, directed by Arturo Toscanini.
Gillis produced several NBC radio programs, including "Serenade to America" and "NBC Concert Hour." After Toscanini retired in 1954 Gillis, serving as president of the Symphony Foundation of America, was instrumental in helping to form the Symphony of the Air, using members of the old NBC Symphony. Gillis also produced the radio program "Toscanini: The Man Behind the Legend," which ran for several years on NBC after the Italian conductor's death.
Other posts held by Gillis during his long and varied career include vice president of the Interlochen Music Camp in Michigan (1958-61), chairman of the music department at Southern Methodist University (1967-68), chairman of the arts department at Dallas Baptist College (1968-72), and composer-in-residence and chairman of the Institute of Media Arts at the University of South Carolina (1973-78).
Don Gillis' Work
One of Gillis' artistic goals was to interpret his American background musically. His music therefore draws on popular material, particularly emphasizing jazz, which Gillis viewed as a dynamic and revitalizing element in American music. He assimilated popular influences in a simple and straightforward style aimed at communicating with his audiences through an emphasis on clear, accessible, melodic writing.
As a result of Gillis' popular appeal, his music has achieved considerable success and has been performed by a number of major orchestras, including the NBC Symphony and the Boston Pops. His more than 150 works include ten symphonies and six string quartets as well as:
The Panhandle, a symphonic suite;
The Alamo;
Symphony No. 51Ú2 (the world premiere of which was conducted by Toscanini)
Portrait of a Frontier Town
Alice in Orchestralia
Texas Centennial March
Amarillo-A Symphonic Celebration
Toscanini: A Portrait of a Century
Gillis also wrote three books: a humorous unpublished autobiography, And Then I Wrote (1948); a satirical conducting methodology, The Unfinished Symphony Conductor (1967); and an important textbook in the media field, The Art of Media Instruction (1973).
He died in Columbia, South Carolina, on January 10, 1978. His papers and an extensive collection of recorded material are housed at the University of North Texas in Denton, including a complete set of tapes from the radio series Toscanini: The Man Behind the Legend.
[reproduced from the Handbook of Texas Online, Larry Wolz]
Sources:
Don Gillis papers, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas.
Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "Gillis, Donald Eugene," http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/GG/fgi34.html (accessed October 24, 2005).
David Ewen, ed., American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary (New York: Putnam, 1982)
Stanley Sadie, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Washington: Macmillan, 1980)
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