Strickland, William

William Remsen Strickland (1914-1991) was born in Defiance, Ohio and began his musical career an an organist. He eventually shifted his focus to conducting and while serving in the U.S. Army (1941-1946) he founded the Army Music School Choir. In 1946 he co-founded the Nashville Symphony Orchestra which he led until 1951. Strickland spent the 1950s championing the works of American composers both at home and abroad. He led the Vienna Symphony, directed the New York Oratorio Society and traveled through Japan, the Philippines, Korea and Vietnam promoting American music. He made numerous recordings of contemporary compositions for the record label Composers Recordings, Inc. From 1962-1963 he directed the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. In the late 1960s he began studying the music of Charles Ives and created electronic realizations of several Ives compositions. He continued his experiments with electronic music after he retired to Connecticut.