Introduction

Biography

Henry was edu­cat­ed in Not­ting­ham & Lon­don, by James Tur­pin, a Fel­low of the Roy­al Col­lege of Or­gan­ists, and Ed­mund Tur­pin.

He was or­gan­ist at St. Luke’s Church, Der­by, Eng­land; St. Tho­mas’ Church, Not­ting­ham; and of the Sac­red Har­mon­ic So­cie­ty of Not­ting­ham. He was also mu­sic lec­tur­er at the col­lege in Not­ting­ham.

He lived in Den­ver, Co­lo­ra­do, from 1888 to at least 1901. He be­came or­gan­ist and choir di­rect­or at St. John’s Epis­co­pal Ca­thed­ral in 1892 when John Gow­er left that post, and he served there the rest of his life.

He was al­so for 30 years or­gan­ist of Tem­ple Em­ma­nu­el in Den­ver, for 25 years or­gan­ist and mu­sic di­rect­or at the Roc­ky Moun­tain and Co­lo­ra­do bo­dies of the An­cient and Ac­cept­ed Scot­tish Rite of Free­ma­sons,.

He was di­rect­or of the Den­ver Sym­pho­ny Or­ches­tra, and of the Den­ver Cho­ral So­cie­ty, which won a $1,000 prize in a Den­ver com­pe­ti­tion in 1896, and first prize at the 1904 St. Lou­is World’s Fair (the fair de­pict­ed in the 1944 Ju­dy Gar­land mo­vie Meet Me in St. Lou­is).

Houseley al­so di­rect­ed a men’s cho­rus called the Ap­ol­lo Club, played the or­gan at St. Mark’s Epis­co­pal Church and the Oakes Home (an old age home run by the Epis­co­pal Dio­cese of Co­lo­ra­do).

He was on the fa­cul­ties of the Den­ver Con­ser­va­to­ry of Mu­sic and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Colorado, and the board of the Mu­sic­al So­cie­ty of Den­ver.

Works

A pro­lific com­pos­er, he wrote an­thems, piec­es for mixed cho­rus, ar­range­ments for wo­men’s voic­es, men’s voic­es, songs, pi­ano works, or­gan piec­es, and six op­eras, in­clud­ing Na­tive Sil­ver and Jugg­ler.