Background

Robert Erickson was born on March 7, 1917 in Marquette, Michigan, United States.

Education

After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Erickson earned degrees in composition from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota.

He received a bachelor's degree in 1978 from the California Institute of Technology, as well as a master's degree in 1980 and a philosophy's degree in Electrical Engineering in 1982.

Career

During his career, Erickson held the post of a teacher, in such educational institutions as College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, University of California, Berkeley, and San Francisco Conservatory of Music, before moving to University of California, San Diego, where he spent the rest of his career.

He was a founder of the music department at the University of California, San Diego in 1967 with composer Wilbur Ogdon.

In addition, he helped to start the San Francisco Tape Music Center.

Although the unusual nature of his music, a mix of tones and lyrics, wasn’t immediately popular in San Diego, but Erickson’s work was admired by his colleagues.

Achievements

• Erickson was one of the first American composers to create tape music.
  
  For his achievements in music he was awarded with several prizes: grants from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
  
  His string quartet Solstice won the 1985 Friedham Award for Chamber Music.
  
  Erickson also received several Yaddo Fellowships in the fifties and sixties, as well as a Ford Foundation Fellowship and Guggenheim Fellowship (1966).
  
  His compositions were commissioned and performed by the Minneapolis, Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles orchestras and the American Composers Orchestra.

Works

More photos

• book

  • My Piano, My Life: The Life of Jacqueline Gourdin

    (This is the fast moving, exciting story of a concert pian...)

    2010
  • Fundamentals of Power Electronics

    (Fundamentals of Power Electronics, Second Edition, is an ...)

  • Sound Structure in Music 1975
  • The structure of music: A listener's guide; a study of music in terms of melody and counterpoint 1957

• music

  • Robert Erickson: Pacific Sirens by Cleveland Chamber Symphony 2003
  • Robert Erickson: Complete String Quartets

Membership

• 

  Institute for Creative Arts of the University of California , United States

  1968

Personality

Erickson speaks with a characteristically American voice, direct and good-natured, attuned to the vernacular, never condescending to its audiences.

References

• International Who's Who in Music and Musicians' Directory (In the Classical and Light Classical Fields) Twelfth Edition 1990/91
  1990
• Thinking Sound Music: The Life and Work of Robert Erickson
• Music of Many Means Music of Many Means introduces musicians, scholars, and listeners to composer Robert Erickson's artistic journey. His reluctance to court national and international recognition kept him out of the contemporary music spotlight, but his best known works include Kryl for solo trumpet, General Speech, and The Idea of Order at Key West. This book combines autobiographical sketches by Erickson and essays by John MacKay that provide the reader with insights into Erickson's creative process along with an objective, analytical discussion of his works. It includes lists of compositions, a bibliography, a discography, and musical examples scattered throughout the text. Music of Many Means will provide scholars with avenues for further research and listeners with a deeper appreciation of Erickson's music.