Composer, musician, author, satirist PETER SCHICKELE is internationally recognized as one of the most versatile artists in the field of music.  His works, well in excess of 100 for symphony orchestras, choral groups, chamber ensembles, voice, movies, and television, have given him "a leading role in the ever-more-prominent school of American composers who unselfconsciously blend all levels of American music." (John Rockwell, The New York Times).

His commissions are numerous and varied, ranging from works for the National Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, Minnesota Opera, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Audubon and Lark String Quartets, Minnesota Orchestral Association, and many other such organizations, to compositions for distinguished instrumentalists and singers. 

Among the recordings recently released are BLUE SET NO. 2 for four bassoons, played by the Bassoon Brothers on the Crystal label; the Grammy Award winning HORNSMOKE, featuring the title piece as well as BRASS CALENDAR and other works for brass quintet performed by the Chestnut Brass Company; "Schickele on a Lark," including the QUINTET NO. 2 FOR PIANO AND STRINGS, STRING QUARTET NO. 2 IN MEMORIAM, and the SEXTET for Strings with the Lark Quartet; and another album of chamber music for strings, including STRING QUARTET NO. 1 "AMERICAN DREAMS," the QUINTET NO. 1 FOR PIANO AND STRINGS, and STRING QUARTET NO. 5 "A YEAR IN THE COUNTRY," with the Audubon.  Other compositions may be heard on RCA Red Seal, Vanguard, CRI, D’Note, Carlton, Koch International, and MusicMasters.

Peter Schickele arranged one of the musical segments for the Disney animated feature film, Fantasia 2000.  He also created the musical score for the film version of Maurice Sendak’s children’s classic Where the Wild Things Are, issued on video along with another Sendak classic In the Night Kitchen, which Mr. Schickele narrates.

Among ongoing projects is a weekly, syndicated radio program, “Schickele Mix,” which has been heard nationwide over Public Radio International since January 1992 and won ASCAP’s prestigious Deems Taylor Award.

In 1993 Telarc released a recording of Prokofiev’s SNEAKY PETE (A.K.A. PETER) AND THE WOLF and Saint-Saëns’ CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS with new texts authored and narrated by Peter Schickele, accompanied by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under Yoel Levi.  Mr. Schickele gave the New York premiere of SNEAKY PETE AND THE WOLF at Carnegie Hall as part of the 1993 Toyota Comedy Festival and has performed the Saint-Saëns work with major American orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic at its gala New Year’s Eve concert in 1991.  He also continues to tour with a program of original cabaret songs, which he sings from the piano with the harmonizing assistance of David Düsing. Another program, “Condition of My Heart,” presents reflections on a long marriage in a continuous montage of poems by Susan Sindall and songs by Peter Schickele.  As a lecturer, he has appeared in cities coast to coast; the Smithsonian Institution presented him in a series of four integrated lectures in 1997.  Peter Schickele is currently touring with his close acquaintance Prof Schickele in two new programs, “Peter Schickele Meets P.D.Q. Bach” and “P.D.Q. Bach and Peter Schickele: The Jekyll and Hyde Tour.” 

Peter Schickele was born on July 17, 1935, in Ames, Iowa, and brought up in Washington, DC and Fargo, ND.  He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1957, having had the distinction of being the only music major (as he had been, earlier, the only bassoonist in Fargo), and by that time he had already composed and conducted four orchestral works, a great deal of chamber music, and some songs.  He studied composition with Roy Harris and Darius Milhaud, and at The Juilliard School of Music with Vincent Persichetti and William Bergsma.  Then, under a Ford Foundation grant, he composed music for high schools in Los Angeles before returning to teach at Juilliard in 1961.  In 1965 he gave up teaching to become the freelance composer/performer he has been ever since.

In the course of his career Schickele has also created music for four feature films, among them the prize-winning Silent Running, as well as for documentaries, television commercials, several Sesame Street segments and an underground movie that he has never seen in its finished state.  He was also one of the composer/lyricists for OH! CALCUTTA!, and has arranged for Joan Baez, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and other folk singers.

Mr. Schickele and his wife, the poet Susan Sindall, reside in New York City and at an upstate hideaway where he concentrates on composing. 

For more complete information, please visit www.presser.com and www.schickele.com

last updated March 29, 2020
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