Schickele had a memorable stint at the prestigious Juilliard School in Manhattan. Once, while teaching fourth year ear training, Schickele’s ingenuity as an educator was tested.

“Sometimes in the spring, teenagers getting out of school would come by and shout obscenities into the window,” he remembers. “There was not much you could do, you just sort of waited for them to get tired and go on. One year I noticed that in this drug store there was a big display of water pistols. And I thought at the risk of starting a rumble I would be prepared if those guys came by again. So before the class I filled up the water pistol and put it in my pocket. The kids never came by and I completely forgot about it.”

“At the end of the class I was saying, ‘Now I’m going to give you the exercises for which you’ll be responsible in the final exam.’ And this organist in the front row said, ‘OK, shoot.’ And I said, ‘What did you say?’ He said, ‘Shoot,’ and I shot at him, but he ducked.”

And it was at that moment that Philip Glass, future composer of “Einstein on the Beach” was shot by Peter Schickele, the future composer of “Einstein on the Fritz.”