Lawrence H. Willingham
2006
Lawrence Hardwick Willingham, 64, a pianist, vocalist and composer of contemporary music in the classical tradition, died April 28 at the Potomac Center nursing and rehabilitation home in Arlington. He had spinal surgery in June and died from complications from the surgery.
Dr. Willingham was an accomplished artist and composer who had schizophrenia, an incurable illness of the brain that often manifests itself in late adolescence, as it did with him.
He was born into a Navy family in Portland, Maine, and spent most of his life in Northern Virginia, most recently in Alexandria. He graduated from St. John's College High School in Washington in 1959 and received a bachelor's degree in music from the New England Conservatory in 1963. He received a master's degree in music from Yale University in 1966 and a doctoral degree in musical arts from West Virginia University in 1974. He won scholarships from all three institutions.
For more than 40 years, he devoted his life to music -- to composition, piano and viola performance and teaching private pupils. His honors for composition included the John Day Jackson Prize at Yale in 1966 and the Friday Morning Music Club Birthday-Bicentennial Award in 1976.
His musical creations were eclectic, including piano solos and string ensemble pieces as well as works for soloists, chorus and orchestra. He particularly enjoyed setting poetry, including the works of Gerard Manley Hopkins and William Blake, to music for vocalists and piano.
He was a member of the Friday Morning Music Club and the American Composers Alliance. A number of community groups in the area performed his music.
Survivors include a brother, David G. Willingham of Alexandria.