“Friends and colleagues are remembering former Greenville Symphony music director Peter Rickett as an inspirational force who took a fledgling musical ensemble and transformed it into a major regional orchestra,” writes Paul Hyde in Wednesday’s (6/18) Greenville News (South Carolina). “Rickett, a professional double bass player who taught at Furman University, led the Greenville Symphony Orchestra for 34 years, from 1956 to 1990.… Under Rickett’s leadership, the Greenville Symphony grew into a more fully professional ensemble, expanding its season and increasing the size of the orchestra while paying musicians higher wages. The orchestra, performing mostly at Furman’s McAlister Auditorium, also added concerts of popular music and established music festivals dedicated to the works of one composer, such as Mozart…. Rickett retired to the Phoenix area from South Carolina in 1994.… Rickett grew up in New York City … [and] graduated from the Juilliard School of Music in 1946.… Rickett was with the New Orleans, Dallas and Chattanooga Symphonies, both as a bass player and conductor, before taking the helm of the fledgling Greenville Symphony in 1956. He performed as a bassist with many of the orchestras in the Southeast and … served 13 years as the conductor of the Hendersonville (N.C.) Symphony.”
Posted June 23, 2014
