$3.2 million bequest reflects Doris Bickel's devotion to music students

 August 14, 2008

The late School of Music professor Doris Bickel used to tell students, “I don’t teach, I coach.”

“She was a hard taskmaster to students, especially if they were talented,” remembers friend Polly Coombs, M.D. 81MR, who took piano lessons from Bickel after Bickel’s 1982 retirement. “She taught me more in the five years I studied with her than any piano instructor I ever had.”

Bickel taught piano and harpsichord at the School of Music until vision impairment forced her retirement. She died in 2007 at the age of 89.

Bickel was known for her exacting standards and command of Baroque music. Her students were very important to her—so important that she left in her will the $3.2 million Doris Owen Bickel Charitable Endowment Fund for the study and performance of classical music.

The primary purpose of the fund is scholarships for the study of classical music at the School of Music. According to her wishes, an advisory committee determines the disbursement of the income from the endowment fund.

“More than 80 percent of our current financial aid is directed toward students in programs representing the classical music tradition, so Doris’s incredible gift will help us enormously,” says School of Music Dean Christopher Doane.

Bickel was a native of Louisville who received her bachelor’s degree in music from UofL in 1939. She completed graduate coursework at the University of Southern California and joined the UofL faculty in 1941.

Bickel gave recitals in the United States and Europe as a pianist and harpsichordist and was a popular accompanist. She was a founding member of the Greater Louisville Music Teachers Association and the Friends of the School of Music, which provided strong community support for the school when it was threatened with the absorption into another UofL college. She also championed the Louisville Orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Louisville, the Kentucky Opera and the Louisville Ballet.

Bickel was married to School of Music piano professor Benjamin Owen. After his death, Bickel met and married Louisville architect John H. Bickel III, who designed the current music building on the Belknap Campus. John Bickel was also a founding member of the Friends of the School of Music and an active member of the Harbor Island water color group. He died in 2005 at age 83.

Professor Bickel's scholarship benefits students of classical music