DICK, MARCEL

DICK, MARCEL (18 Aug. 1898-13 Dec. 1991) provided Cleveland with a link to the Austrian musician Arnold Schoenberg, as head of the advanced theory and composition dept. of the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF MUSIC. A great-nephew of Hungarian violinist Edward Remenyi, Dick was born in Miskolc, Hungary, and studied under composer Zoltan Kodaly at the Royal Academy of Music in Budapest. After serving in the Austrian army during WORLD WAR I, he became a member of the Kolisch String Quartet and first violist of the Vienna Symphony. He lived for nearly 2 years in the same apartment building with Schoenberg and participated in the world premiere of the latter's Serenade. Dick came to the United States in 1934, about the same time that he married Ann Weil. He became principal violist of the Detroit Symphony and served the CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA in the same capacity from 1943-49. He began teaching at CIM in 1946, becoming head of composition 2 years later. Among his students were Donald Erb and Hale Smith. In his own works, Dick exemplified the 12-tone serial techniques of Schoenberg. His Symphony was performed by the Cleveland Orchestra under Dimitri Mitropoulos in 1950, and Dick himself led the orchestra in his Capriccio for Orchestra in 1957 and the Adagio and Rondo for Orchestra in 1963. In 1962 he received one of the Fine Arts Awards presented by the WOMEN'S CITY CLUB. Although he gave up the chairmanship at CIM in 1973, he continued to teach and compose. A volume of essays, Studies in the Schoenbergian Movement in Vienna and the United States, was published in his honor by colleagues and former students in 1990. He was survived by his wife and a daughter, Suzanne Wolfe.