David Hicken - Fantasia

From the album, The Final Toccata, 1990

David Hicken was born in Shropshire, England into a musical family. His mother, a well-known piano teacher and Headteacher at a local High School, had studied piano with composer and pianist York Bowen at the Royal Academy of Music. His father had a fine tenor voice, which was often compared to that of Mario Lanza, and he was once featured on a local radio station. His grandparents were also musical, and in their youth they performed together at local venues, his grandmother singing soprano accompanied by his grandfather at the piano. It seemed only natural that David would begin piano lessons with his mother, which he did at the age of three. He began clarinet lessons at the age of nine and organ lessons at eleven.

While living in Baltimore, David began composing using electronic instruments and President Records released his first album - "The Final Toccata" in 1990. He also composed the music for a short film entitled "Blades". The following year, he moved to Los Angeles where he continued to give recitals and compose. Prestige Records released his second album "The Shadow of Youth" in 1993. While in Los Angeles, he had several positions as director of music most notably, the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills, which was attended by a number of movie stars. It was here that David was to perform for such notable entertainers as Elizabeth Taylor, James Woods and Ricardo Montalban.

David's skills as a teacher were highly sought after, particularly by celebrities who wanted him to teach their children. He taught a number of actors' children as well as the children of movie composer, James Horner, television composer, Snuffy Walden and the daughter of record producer, David Foster. In 1998, he founded The Music Academy of Southern California, which still continues to produce talented students.

His time in Los Angeles exposed David to other musical genres including Jazz and Blues. He met legendary keyboard player Patrick Moraz of the rock groups "Yes" and "The Moody Blues" and they collaborated on some projects together.

Manager Ruth Plummer of Artist Recitals represented David and helped with his busy performing schedule. He gave several recitals in Hollywood for the Organ Institute of America and after two highly successful solo performances with the Westchester Symphony Orchestra, he was asked to record two CDs of organ music on the organ of Loyola Marymount University. Both albums, - "A Christmas Pastorale" and "Symphony Gothique" were released by Laserlight Records in 1998.

Category:

Music

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• David
• Hicken
• Piano
• classical
• music
• orchestra
• concerto
• symphony
• synth
• synthesizer
• organ
• organist