American composer, musician and satirist. In a long and active career he has written and arranged for classical, jazz, rock, and folk ensembles, providing music for concerts, films, television, radio, and the stage. He became wildly successful as his alter-ego, Professor Schickele, who convulsed audiences for over three decades with mock productions of 28th century baroque music, mostly by “P.D.Q. Bach.”
A Professor of Music at the University of Southern North Dakota, Schickele introduced his inventive composer in 1965, reputedly “the last and least of the many children of Johann Sebastian Bach.” The works have included, over the years, an opera, “The Abduction of Figaro,” and early attempts as stylistic fusions such as the bluegrass cantata “Blaues Grass, Grune Himmel.” It also requires the development of instruments such as the left-handed sewer flute, the slide music stand, the windbreaker and more.
Over the years, the works of P.D.Q. Bach have been performed by many of the world’s greatest orchestras, often with hilarious results if not uproarious eruptions of joy from the audience. Schickele is internationally recognized as one of the most versatile and imaginative creative artists in the musical world. Over a hundred works are available for symphony orchestras, choral groups, chamber ensembles, voice, movies, and television, giving him a respectable voice in the annals of American music. He tours with a program of original songs, singing some of his works with the poetry written by his wife, Susan Sindall. Annually, he gives an all-Schickele chamber music concert in New York. As a recording artist, he has released some dozen LPs and innumerable scores and as a performing artist, his appearances sell-out rapidly. Called “the greatest comedy-in-music act before the public today,” Schickele has reaped Grammy’s and other awards for his satire and musicology.
Born in Iowa, Peter is the son of an agricultural economist dad and a physicist mom with one younger brother (now a filmmaker). He was raised in Washington DC and Fargo, ND (where he was Fargo’s only bassoonist) and he graduated from Swarthmore in 1957 as the only music major. He was interested in theater from the time he was a kid and already writing prolifically. He studied composition and under a Ford grant, composed music for high schools in Los Angeles before returning to teach at Juilliard in 1961.
The official debut of Bach burst upon the world at large in April 1965 at New York’s Town Hall.
He has also composed film scores for features and documentaries, music and lyrics for stage shows and arrangements for varied folk singers.
Schickele and his wife Susan live in New York City and he concentrates on his composing in an upstate hideaway. With his son and his daughter, he plays in an alternative rock band called “Beekeeper.”
Link to Wikipedia biography