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John Hollingsworth
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
John Hollingsworth (1916 to 1963) was a British conductor who worked in the concert hall, in ballet and opera and in the film studio. He was born in Enfield near London and studied at the Guildhall School of Music. In 1937, at the age of twenty-one, he conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, as its youngest conductor up to that time. During the war he served in the Royal Air Force, where he led the RAF Symphony Orchestra. With that orchestra he played six concerts at the Potsdam Conference.
Music and breakthrough
After the war he worked at Rank under Muir Mathieson, on Brief Encounter and on William Walton's music for Hamlet, among others. From 1950 he conducted the Sadler's Wells Ballet. For ten years he was Sir Malcolm Sargent's right-hand man at the Proms, with 63 appearances and several world premieres. At Hammer Films he conducted horror films of the 1950s, such as Horror of Dracula and The Curse of Frankenstein, often with music by James Bernard. In 1955 he gave Richard Rodney Bennett the chance to write his first film score.
Influence
Hollingsworth made many recordings, mainly of ballet music and light orchestral music, including Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker with the Sinfonia of London. His place in music history is that of the craftsman in the background: he made sure that other people's scores sounded good, on stage, in the studio and on record.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 1956Invitation to the Dance
- 1958Swan Lake Ballet Suite
- 1980Chu Chin Chow
- 1996The Nutcracker: Tchaikovsky's Masterpiece
In School of Rock
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- The Dream Factory: Film Reel 3NL Reader
Mentioned in other articles
- Hammer horror and British genre film Genre
The musical director John Hollingsworth often commissioned modern concert composers.