Peter Racine Fricker

Peter Racine Fricker was a British composer and educator. Raised in London, Fricker attended the Royal College of Music, where he studied with Reginald Owen Morris and Ernest Bullock. After serving in the Royal Air Force in World War II, Fricker returned to composition, taking lessons with Mátyás Seiber and assisting in choral rehearsals. He became a professor of composition at the Royal College of Music, and was named the director of music at Morley College in 1952. His compositions received considerable attention in the late 1940s, notably his Wind Quintet, the String Quartet No. 1, the Symphony No. 1, and other works that drew critical praise. In 1964, Fricker was hired as a visiting professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, which led to his joining the faculty in 1970. He was honored as a faculty research lecturer in 1979. Fricker also served as the president of the Cheltenham International Festival of Music and Literature from 1984 to 1986.