Percussionist, conductor, and author Steven Schick, hailed by Alex Ross in The New Yorker as ‘one of our supreme living virtuosos, not just of percussion but of any instrument,’ has championed contemporary percussion music by commissioning or premiering more than 150 new works.

Schick is the artistic director of the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. As a conductor, he has led the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony, Ensemble Modern, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and the Asko/Schönberg Ensemble. He also serves as a Distinguished Professor of Music and holds the Reed Family Presidential Chair at the University of California, San Diego.

Schick highlights three essential relationships at the core of a thriving artistic practice: between an artist and their materials, between an artist and the natural world, and between an artist and their community. This masterclass offers ANAM musicians the opportunity to discuss their experiences and aspirations, as well as to explore and unpack these foundational ideas.