Steven Schick was born in Iowa and raised in a farming family. For over thirty years, he has championed contemporary percussion music as a performer and teacher, by commissioning and premiering more than one hundred new works for percussion.

From 1992 through 2002, Schick was the percussionist of the Bang on a Can All-Stars, and from 2000 to 2004 he was Artistic Director of the Centre International de Percussion de Genève in Geneva, Switzerland. In addition, Schick is a founder and Artistic Director of the percussion group, Red Fish Blue Fish.

In 2007, the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus named Schick as Music Director and conductor. The accomplished percussionist is also a Distinguished Professor of Music at UCSD.

Schick has also written a book on solo percussion music, The Percussionist's Art: Same Bed, Different Dreams, published by the University of Rochester Press. His recording of “The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies” by John Luther Adams was released by Cantaloupe Music, and a three-CD set of the complete percussion music of Iannis Xenakis, made in collaboration with Red Fish Blue Fish, was issued by Mode Records.