Dreher, Ted (Dreher, Theodore) (January 5, 1912-May 8, 1996)
Dates
- Existence: January 5, 1912 - May 8, 1996
Biography
Theodore (Ted) Dreher was born January 5, 1912, in Calgary, Alberta, to American parents Irving Andrew Dreher and Clara Louise Lewis. Dreher’s parents relocated to Kansas City, Missouri, where he grew up and was educated. He attended H.C. Kumpf School (1924), Central Junior High School (1925), Paseo High School (1928), and Kansas City Junior College (1930). He married Marguerite Chuning in 1935 and had several children with her.
In 1922, when Dreher was ten years old, his parents hired Fred Brack in order to teach their son how to play the piano. Brack was only the first of several formal and informal instructors Dreher had, but it was the beginning of his musical career. As a young man during the 1930s, Dreher played at several clubs, including Club Leisure, Paradise Club, Silver Slipper, and Oriental Amo Club. He was composer-in-residence to the Oklahoma Symphony Works Progress Administration project in 1937, and worked in Chicago for the WGN radio orchestra and Jack Teagarden’s band during the 1940s.
Dreher moved back to Kansas City in 1943. He was elected president of the Kansas City Musicians’ Union Local #34 in 1951. He served until 1969 when he was appointed assistant to the President of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) by then-president Herman D. Kenin. He was also commissioned as a composer, including the AFM Congress of Strings training project and the Capitol Chamber Artists of Albany, New York.
Dreher composed numerous works, such as Bettina, Bing Is Going To Sing, The Clown Who Was Sightless, Don’t Wait For Me, Essay For Solo Cello, Honky Tonk Saturday Night, She Said “Someday,” and Sweet Candy Baby, among other noteworthy compositions. In his book The Wicked Wicket, Dreher stated he had composed 418 songs during his career (Dreher 24).
Ted Dreher died May 8, 1996, in Plano, Texas. He was 84.
