Oliver was a the­a­ter man­a­ger, dra­ma cri­tic, and di­rect­or of mu­sic for the pub­lic school sys­tem of Al­ba­ny, New York. He at­tend­ed the Al­ba­ny Class­ic­al In­sti­tute, and lat­er the Al­ba­ny Acad­e­my, from which he grad­u­at­ed in 1872 and where he re­ceived the Gan­non Me­dal for ex­cel­lence in chem­is­try. He went on to Har­vard, but was forced to quit due to poor eye­sight, so he took up mu­sic. He was or­gan­ist at All Saints Ca­thed­ral, the Eman­u­el Bap­tist Church, the Se­cond Pres­by­ter­i­an Church, and St. Paul’s Epis­co­pal Church in Al­bany.

He taught three gen­er­a­tions of stu­dents in Al­ba­ny, and it was said he ne­ver for­got the first names of his thou­sands of pu­pils. Two years be­fore his re­tire­ment from the pub­lic school sys­tem in 1936, his for­mer stu­dents gave him a din­ner at­tend­ed by 700.

• New York Times, Sep­tem­ber 27, 1941

1. Baranquilla
2. Beau Val­lon
3. Beautiful Bright Sun­shine, The
4. In the Ear­ly Morn­ing, Ear­ly
5. Merry, Mer­ry Chim­ing Bells
6. Oliver
7. Once Again the Olden Story