Bricken, Carl Ernest
Bricken, Carl Ernest
Bricken, Carl Ernest, American composer, conductor, and pianist; b. Shelbyville, Ky., Dec. 28, 1898; d. Sweet Briar, Va., Jan. 25, 1971. He studied with Scalero at the Mannes School of Music in N.Y., and also pursued training at Yale Univ., in Vienna, and with Cortot at the École Normale de Musique in Paris. He taught at the Mannes School of Music (1925–28) and at the Inst. of Musical Art in N.Y; in 1931 he organized the music dept. at the Univ. of Chicago, and was its chairman until becoming prof, of music at the Univ. of Wise, in 1938. After serving as conductor of the Seattle Sym. Orch. (1944–48), he taught at Sweet Briar Coll. (1954–63) before devoting himself to painting. He wrote 3 syms., and other orch. works, chamber music, and piano pieces.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire