Professional Background:
Robert Dickow was born in San Francisco in 1949. After piano and violin studies in his early years, at age 10 he discovered the horn, and in two years was playing horn in the internationally recognized California Youth Symphony, and later was a soloist with that ensemble.

He studied horn with Charles Bubb and Ralph Hotz of the San Francisco Symphony, and just out of high school began to play professionally, working with musicians ranging from Ornette Coleman and Bing Crosby to Seiji Ozawa and Robert Craft. In 1969 Dickow played full-time in the Amici Della Musica Chamber Orchestra, followed by a season as associate principal horn in the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, until he decided to continue his musical studies at the University of California at Berkeley.

While living in California he performed with many ensembles, including the San Jose Symphony, San Francisco and Oakland Symphony Orchestras, the Cabrillo Festival, the Carmel Bach Festival, the San Francisco Civic Light Opera, and the San Francisco Wind Quintet.

His studies at Berkeley led to a Ph.D. degree in music composition. Dickow lived in London from 1973 to 1975 as a recipient of the George Ladd 'Prix de Paris' and has had works performed by the Fitzwilliam String Quartet, Park Lane Players, the Orchestra of St. John's-Smith Square, and the American Horn Quartet, among other ensembles. Among the U.S. groups to have performed his music are the Pittsburg New Music Ensemble, Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players, Ann Arbor New Directions Ensemble, and the Louisville Youth Choir.

He taught harmony at Berkeley for two years before taking a teaching position at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. Today Dickow is active in the Northwest as a teacher, composer, and performer, and plays with the Lionel Hampton School of Music faculty wind and brass quintets, the Spokane Symphony, and is principal horn in the Washington/Idaho Symphony.

As a composer he has received several prizes and commissions, and is published by Thompson Editions, Shawnee Press, Queen City Brass, and Manduca Music. Most recently he has been composing music for video documentaries and interactive CD ROM educational software, as well as chamber and vocal music. In addition to instrumental and vocal music, he enjoys electronic music, especially algorithmic computer composition. His electronic works have been performed at the Society for Electronic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), the 14th Florida Electronic Music Festival, and at Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane. Dickow is also a contributor to the Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians, The Groves Dictionary of Jazz, and The Groves Dictionary of American Music.  His personal interests and hobbies include gardening and computers.