Author, composer, and performer Michael Hicks received a DMA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1984 and was a Professor of Music at Brigham Young University from 1985 through 2020. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Mormon Letters in 2023.
He has authored ten books: ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ช๐ด๐ฎ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ช๐ค: ๐ ๐๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐บ (1989, winner for Best First Book, Mormon History Association), ๐๐ช๐น๐ต๐ช๐ฆ๐ด ๐๐ฐ๐ค๐ฌ: ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ข๐จ๐ฆ, ๐๐ด๐บ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ค, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ด๐ง๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด (1999), ๐๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ณ๐บ ๐๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ, ๐๐ฐ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ช๐ข๐ฏ (2002), and ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐๐ข๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ข๐ค๐ญ๐ฆ ๐๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ช๐ณ: ๐ ๐๐ช๐ฐ๐จ๐ณ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฉ๐บ (2015, Honorable Mention for Biography, Mormon History Association; Finalist in Non-Fiction for Utah Book Award)โall published by University of Illinois Pressโ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ต๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ต-๐๐ฆ๐จ๐ข๐ญ ๐๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฏ'๐ด ๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ (Createspace, 2012), ๐๐ฉ๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ข๐ฏ ๐๐ฐ๐ญ๐ง๐ง (co-authored with Christian Asplund, University of Illinois, 2012), ๐๐ฐ ๐๐ญ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฅ๐ด ๐๐ฆ๐ด๐ต?: ๐๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ข๐ฅ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐๐ฐ๐ฎ (Createspace, 2017), ๐๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ๐ณ ๐๐ช๐ฎ๐ฃ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ'๐ด ๐๐ฆ๐ค๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ ๐๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ: ๐๐ด๐ด๐ข๐บ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ช๐ค (Signature Books 2020), ๐๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ: ๐๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ' ๐๐ฆ๐ด๐ถ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ '60๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ '70๐ด (Signature Books, 2022, winner for Best Memoir, Mormon History Association), and ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ถ๐ฆ ๐๐ด๐ข๐ญ๐ฎ๐ด (By Common Consent Press, forthcoming).
His dozens of historical and analytical articles have appeared in books such as the ๐๐ฏ๐ค๐บ๐ค๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ช๐ข ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ญ๐ข๐ณ ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ช๐ค ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ญ๐ฅ and the ๐๐น๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ช๐ด๐ฎ as well as journals that include ๐๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ช๐ค, ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ต๐ช๐ค ๐๐ฅ๐ถ๐ค๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ, ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ช๐ค๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ญ ๐๐ฐ๐ค๐ช๐ฆ๐ต๐บ, and ๐๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฆ๐ธ ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ช๐ค. He has been an invited guest lecturer at Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley and has read papers at various national meetings of groups such as the Society for American Music and the American Musicological Society. He has twice won the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award (1994 and 2003) for his writing about music and a third time as editor of the journal ๐๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ช๐ค, a post he held from 2007-2010.
His poetry, meanwhile, has been published in ๐๐ช๐ข๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ๐ถ๐ฆ: ๐ ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ๐ต, ๐๐ช๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ฆ๐ง, ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด, ๐๐ถ๐ฏ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ, and ๐๐ด๐ข๐ญ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐บ๐ณ๐ฆ, as well as in the anthologies ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ด (2008), ๐๐ฆ๐ธ ๐๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ต๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐๐ฆ๐ด๐ต (2010), and ๐๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ (2011).
His chamber and solo works have been performed and recorded by BYU's University Singers, Concert Choir, and Group for New Music (which he founded in 1987); by other performers around the country (including the Black Swamp Saxophone Quartet and the Memphis Symphony Brass Quintet); and by performing artists at events of the NOVA Chamber Series, American Society of University Composers, Cincinnati Composers Guild, and Subtropics Music Festival. His chamber music may be heard on the CDs ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ช๐ป๐ฐ๐ฏ (1994), ๐๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด (1996), ๐๐ช๐ต๐ถ๐ข๐ญ ๐๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด (2003), and ๐๐ฆ๐ญ๐ต ๐๐ข๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด (2015), all on the Tantara label, which in 2007 also issued his singer-songwriter album ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐๐ต.
His many solo performances range from the Utah premiere (2006) of Morton Feldman's ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐ช๐ด ๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ช to folk concerts for the fortieth anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (performed at various locations in Utah and Colorado, 2008).
For more about his work, go to www.michaelhicks.org
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