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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
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