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Fine Arts Radio International® Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree Presented In Bartlesville
Peter Schickele, producer and host of the nationally syndicated radio program Schickele Mix, will be recognized for his contribution to music education in a short presentation during his June 12 appearance at the OK Mozart Festival in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Shortly after intermission of his "Jekyll and Hyde Tour" performance, the Klassix Society, friends of 88.7KXMS / Fine Arts Radio International® (Joplin, Missouri), will bestow its 2001 Lifetime Achievement Award on Schickele.
Although best known for decades of concerts and numerous recordings featuring his alter-ego P.D.Q. Bach, Schickele's innovated and entertaining style of communicating the joy of music in his weekly Public Radio International radio show has prompted the Klassix Society to honor him with the this year's crystal trophy.
Schickele Mix, a wide-ranging radio program, cannot be safely pigeon-holed as a particular genre of music program, causing some consternation among public radio program managers. But Schickele has never taken the safe course in his long musical career that has included classical, jazz, rock and folk music. The irreverence of P.D.Q. Bach regularly skewers the solemnity of classical music with concerts that are fresh with wit and musical invention. Schickele Mix is cut from that same musical cloth.
The Fine Arts Radio International® Awards were created in 2000 to promote classical music education through the medium of radio. The separate Lifetime Achievement Award was launched to recognize conspicuous achievement in that area. Karl Haas, producer and host of Adventures in Good Music, was the inaugural recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award. His 42-year series of programs provided a benchmark for what the Klassix Society intends to recognize and promote with the annual awards.
Peter Schickele was born July 17, 1935 in Ames, Iowa. He grew up in Ames, Washington, D.C., and Fargo, North Dakota. After attending Swarthmore University, he went on to receive a graduate degree at The Juilliard School of Music in New York City. As a composer, Schickele has produced concert music and provided music for films, television, radio, and the stage. He presented his first P.D.Q. Bach concert in 1965, leading to the end of his teaching career. He returned to teaching in a sense with the premiere of Schickele Mix in 1992 when it was first produced at WFMT/Chicago.
88.7KXMS / Fine Arts Radio International® is a cultural resource of Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, Missouri. It broadcasts a wide range of classical music 24 hours a day over the Internet to avid listeners throughout the United States and the world at www.kxms.org. The non-profit Klassix Society was incorporated in 1990 in support of KXMS.
The Klassix Society may be contacted at 3950 E. Newman Road, Joplin, Missouri 64801-1595.
Text of the Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient's Letter:
12 June 2001
Bartlesville, Oklahoma
Representatives of the Klassix Society, Friends of 88.7KXMS / Fine Arts Radio International, are here tonight, not to revel in the musically subversive humor that Peter Schickele shares with all of us through his P.D.Q. Bach persona, but rather as ambassadors of music education to recognize Peter's distinguished efforts realized since 1992 in his weekly national radio program Schickele Mix.
Originally produced at WFMT/Chicago, and now syndicated through Public Radio International, Schickele Mix brings a fresh approach to the presentation of not only classical music, but of many kinds of music that strike a chord in the hearts and minds of diverse public radio listeners. Peter's unique radio program draws from many musical wellsprings: from his career as a composer, arranger, and teacher. His inspiration also draws from another seemingly bottomless pool of clear blue creativity, the musical franchise we all know as P.D.Q. Bach, which has informed musical audiences about the nature of classical music as it has delighted listeners for nearly four decades. Peter's musical contributions have always been profoundly personal and unique and they have found a suitable outlet on public radio.
The Fine Arts Radio International Awards began in 2000 with the Friends of 88.7KXMS Radio at Missouri Southern State University (Joplin) recognizing the efforts of radio producers in the service of music education. Mr. Schickele is tonight the newest recipient of the crystal trophy signifying his commitment to sharing his joy and discovery of music with the American public through the medium of radio.
Therefore, tonight, on this occasion at the 2001 OK Mozart Festival in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, we, the Klassix Society, present to you, Peter Schickele, the 2001 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Fine Arts Radio International Awards for sharing that necessity of the soul we call music.
88.7KXMS is a cultural resource of Missouri Southern State University