Ralph Swickward (1900-1986)
Electronic composer as well as viola, French horn, and violin player born in San Jose, California. He studied engineering at Stanford University and music at UCLA. He worked at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Laboratory in New York before building his own studio in Los Angeles. In addition to electronic and classical compositions, he made tapes for modern dance and theatrical productions. During the 1970s, he taught electronic music at Santa Barbara City College and he taught music theory at San Jose State University from 1980 to 1994. He died on February 14, 1986 of stomach cancer.
