Houston mourns ex-principal clarinet

Richard William Pickar, Music Director of the Galveston Symphony Orchestra for 33 years (1979-2012) and principal clarinetist with the Houston Symphony Orchestra for 31 years (1959 -1990), died on Thursday, October 3, 2024, in Houston, Texas. He was 92.

From his obituary: He was born December 16, 1931, in Chicago, Illinois to Rachel Hinda Smith, an accomplished violinist who came to the US from Lithuania to attend the New England Conservatory of Music. Richard’s father, George Harrison Pickar, clerked for Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter and led a distinguished career as law professor.

In Vienna Richard graduated with highest honors from the Akademie fur Musik und Darstellende Kunst. While a student in Vienna, Richard performed with friend and classmate, Zubin Mehta. In 1957, he was engaged as principal clarinet of the Philharmonia Hungarica. In 1959, at the request of conductor Leopold Stokowski, Richard accepted the position of principal clarinet of the Houston Symphony.