Robert Erickson (March 7, 1917 – April 24, 1997) was an American modernist composer and influential music teacher.
He learned both piano and violin as a child, and studied composition with Ernst Krenek at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota, graduating in 1943.
"[1] While there he met faculty performers such as bassist Bertram Turetzky, trumpeter Edwin Harkins, flutist Bernhard Batschelet, and singer Carol Plantamura: "I could go to Bert, or Ed, with something I'd written down and ask 'Hey, can you do this?'
"[1] His notable students are Morton Subotnick, Pauline Oliveros, Terry Riley, Louise Spizizen, Ramón Sender, Loren Rush, Betty Ann Wong, Terry Jennings, Allen Strange, and Paul Dresher.
Oliveros, among others, praises his teaching: Robert Erickson was my principal composition teacher from 1954-60 and my professional mentor.
"[1] He also has used invented instruments such as stroking rods, used in Taffy Time, Cardinitas 68, and Roddy, tube drums, used in Cradle, Cradle II, and Tube Drum Studies, and the Percussion Loops Console designed with Ron George, used in Percussion Loops.
He suffered from a wasting muscle disease, polymyositis, and was bedridden and in pain for fifteen years before his death.