Steven Schick

A major force in contemporary percussion music in the U.S., Steven Schick is also an important educator. He has commissioned some 100 new percussion works. Schick was born in 1954 in Mason City, Iowa, and grew up on a farm in nearby Clear Lake. His youth, heavily defined by farm chores, had no point of contact with contemporary composition, but his mother was an enthusiastic amateur pianist, and his uncle played drums in a rock band. His parents encouraged his interest in the drums, but only because for him to play percussion in his high school band, they would only have to b...