William Remsen Strickland (b. Defiance

Defiance, Ohio

As of the census of 2000, there were 16,465 people, 6,572 households, and 4,422 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,562.4 people per square mile . There were 7,061 housing units at an average density of 670.0 per square mile...

, Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

, January 25, 1914; d. Westport

Westport, Connecticut

-Neighborhoods:* Saugatuck – around the Westport railroad station near the southwestern corner of the town – a built-up area with some restaurants, stores and offices....

, Connecticut

Connecticut

Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

, November 17, 1991) was an American conductor and organist.

He served as guest conductor for the Cathedral Choral Society

Cathedral Choral Society

The Cathedral Choral Society is a 200-voice symphonic chorus based at the Washington National Cathedral. J. Reilly Lewis has been music director since 1985. He succeeded Paul Callaway, who founded the group in 1941...

 of Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. He conducted the Nashville Symphony for five seasons, from 1946 to 1951, and later conducted the Oratorio Society of New York

Oratorio Society of New York

The Oratorio Society of New York is a non-profit membership organization which performs choral music in the oratorio style. The Society was founded in 1873 by conductor Leopold Damrosch, and it is New York City's second oldest cultural organization...

.

He was noted for his performances and recordings of contemporary

Contemporary classical music

Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...

 works by American composers such as Samuel Barber

Samuel Barber

Samuel Osborne Barber II was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music...

, John J. Becker

John J. Becker

John Joseph Becker was an American composer of contemporary classical music. He is grouped together with Charles Ives, Carl Ruggles, Henry Cowell, and Wallingford Riegger as a member of the "American Five" composers of "ultra-modern" music.The John J...

, Jack Beeson

Jack Beeson

Jack Beeson was an American composer. He was known particularly for his operas, the best known of which are Lizzie Borden, Hello Out There! and The Sweet Bye and Bye.-Biography:...

, William Bergsma

William Bergsma

-Biography:After studying piano with his mother, a former opera singer, and then the viola, Bergsma moved on to study composition; his most significant teachers were Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers. Bergsma attended Stanford University for two years before moving on to the Eastman School of...

, John Alden Carpenter

John Alden Carpenter

John Alden Carpenter was an American composer.-Biography:Born in Park Ridge, Illinois, Carpenter was raised in a musical household. He was educated at Harvard University, where he studied under John Knowles Paine, and was president of the Glee Club and wrote music for the Hasty-Pudding Club...

, Henry Cowell

Henry Cowell

Henry Cowell was an American composer, music theorist, pianist, teacher, publisher, and impresario. His contribution to the world of music was summed up by Virgil Thomson, writing in the early 1950s:...

, Norman Dello Joio

Norman Dello Joio

- Life :He was born Nicodemo DeGioio in New York City to Italian immigrants. He began his musical career as organist and choir director at the Star of the Sea Church on City Island in New York at age 14. His father was an organist, pianist, and vocal coach and coached many opera stars from the...

, Vivian Fine

Vivian Fine

Vivian Fine was an American composer.Over her 70 year career, Vivian Fine became one of America’s most important composers. She wrote virtually without a break for 68 years, producing over 140 works...

, William Flanagan, Miriam Gideon

Miriam Gideon

Miriam Gideon was an American composer.-Life:She studied organ with her uncle Henry Gideon and piano with Felix Fox. She also studied with Martin Bernstein, Marion Bauer, Charles Haubiel, and Jacques Pillois...

, Irwin Heilner

Irwin Heilner

Irwin Heilner was an American composer of contemporary classical music. His works are published by American Composers Alliance....

, Alan Hovhaness

Alan Hovhaness

Alan Hovhaness was an Armenian-American composer.His music is accessible to the lay listener and often evokes a mood of mystery or contemplation...

, Mary Howe

Mary Howe

-Biography:She was born Mary Carlisle in Richmond, Virginia, at the home of her maternal grandparents. She would live most of her life in the Washington, DC. Her family was quite wealthy; her father, Calderon Carlisle, was a well known and successful lawyer. This privilege helped her get piano...

, Charles Ives

Charles Ives

Charles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives came to be regarded as an "American Original"...

, Frederick Jacobi

Frederick Jacobi

Frederick Jacobi was a prolific American composer and teacher.His works include symphonies, concerti, chamber music, works for solo piano and for solo organ, lieder, and one opera....

, Werner Josten

Werner Josten

Werner Erich Josten was a German-born composer of contemporary classical music. He studied in Munich with Rudolf Siegel and in Geneva with Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, and emigrated to the United States in 1920 or 1921...

, Homer Keller

Homer Keller

Homer T. Keller was an American composer of contemporary classical music.He graduated from Oxnard Union High School in Oxnard, California in 1933, after which he attended the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Howard Hanson, obtaining B.M. and M.M. degrees...

, Harrison Kerr

Harrison Kerr

Harrison Kerr was an American composer of contemporary classical music, editor, administrator, and educator....

, Edward MacDowell

Edward MacDowell

Edward Alexander MacDowell was an American composer and pianist of the Romantic period. He was best known for his second piano concerto and his piano suites "Woodland Sketches", "Sea Pieces", and "New England Idylls". "Woodland Sketches" includes his most popular short piece, "To a Wild Rose"...

, Douglas Moore, Horatio Parker

Horatio Parker

Horatio William Parker was an American composer, organist and teacher. He was a central figure in musical life in New Haven, Connecticut in the late 19th century, and is best remembered as the teacher of Charles Ives....

, Julia Perry

Julia Perry

Julia Amanda Perry was an African-American composer of classical music.Born in Lexington, Kentucky, Perry studied voice, piano and composition at the Westminster Choir College 1943-48 and came to prominence as a result of a scholarship to the Berkshire Music Center where she was a student of Luigi...

, Walter Piston

Walter Piston

Walter Hamor Piston Jr., , was an American composer of classical music, music theorist and professor of music at Harvard University whose students included Leroy Anderson, Leonard Bernstein, and Elliott Carter....

, Wallingford Riegger

Wallingford Riegger

Wallingford Constantine Riegger was a prolific American music composer, well known for orchestral and modern dance music, and film scores...

, Richard Rodgers

Richard Rodgers

Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...

, Carl Ruggles

Carl Ruggles

Charles "Carl" Sprague Ruggles was an American composer of the American Five group. He wrote finely crafted pieces using "dissonant counterpoint", a term coined by Charles Seeger to describe Ruggles' music...

, Roger Sessions

Roger Sessions

Roger Huntington Sessions was an American composer, critic, and teacher of music.-Life:Sessions was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a family that could trace its roots back to the American revolution. His mother, Ruth Huntington Sessions, was a direct descendent of Samuel Huntington, a signer of...

, Louise Talma

Louise Talma

Louise Talma was a composer. She was raised in New York City and studied at the Institute of Musical Arts , 1922–1930, and received her bachelor of music degree from New York University and masters of arts degree from Columbia University...

, Francis Thorne

Francis Thorne

Francis Thorne is an American composer of contemporary classical music and grandson of the writer Gustav Kobbé.-Life:...

, Lester Trimble

Lester Trimble

Lester Albert Trimble was an American music critic and composer of contemporary classical music....

, David Van Vactor

David Van Vactor

David Van Vactor was an American composer of contemporary classical music.He was born in Plymouth, Indiana, and received Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from Northwestern University...

, Robert Ward, and Elinor Remick Warren

Elinor Remick Warren

Elinor Remick Warren was an American composer of contemporary classical music and pianist. She composed in a predominantly neo-Romantic style....

. He also conducted and recorded in Iceland

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, and Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.

He died at his home in Westport, Connecticut

Westport, Connecticut

-Neighborhoods:* Saugatuck – around the Westport railroad station near the southwestern corner of the town – a built-up area with some restaurants, stores and offices....

 at the age of 77, on November 17, 1991, of lung cancer

Lung cancer

Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...

.

The William Strickland papers are held by the Tennessee State Library and Archives

Tennessee State Library and Archives

The Tennessee State Library and Archives , established in 1854, currently operates as a unit of the Tennessee Department of State. According to the Tennessee Blue Book, the Library and Archives "collects and preserves books and records of historical, documentary and reference value, and encourages...

 in Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

. In 1991, a bequest from his estate helped to establish the William R. Strickland Commission Endowment Fund, which assists in the sponsorship of new musical compositions.http://www.arsisaudio.com/cd150N.html

External links

• Obituary from The New York Times
• Article