Peter Racine Fricker joined the faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1964 as a visiting professor, and became a regular faculty member in 1970. In 1979, he was appointed Faculty Research Lecturer, andremained an active professor at the University until his death in 1990.

In 2008, he arranged for his estate to be used to fund an endowment for the graduate program in Composition at UCSB. The Peter Racine FrickerFellowship for Studies in Composition provides fellowships for graduate students as well as postdoctoral students in the Composition Program of the Music Department at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Fricker 'ssubstantial output of symphonies, concertos and string quartets formed an important contribution to the growth of a more progressive, European outlook among British composers in the immediate postwar years. A contrapuntalist, hewas influenced by the examples of Bartok and Hindemtih, though using serial methods as well. Hi s vocal and choral works were few in number, though the oratorio The Vision of Judgement remains highly regarded.