Michael Hicks

Michael D. Hicks is a composer, performer, scholar, and poet. He is a professor of music at Brigham Young University. He joined the faculty in 1984.

Hicks earned his bachelor’s degree in music, summa cum laude, from BYU. He earned both his Master of Music in composition and his Doctor of Musical Arts in composition from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also had a minor in musicology.

He is the author of several scholarly books, the first of which was Mormonism and Music: A History (1989) which garnered him awards from the Mormon History Association and the Association of Mormon Letters. Other titles include The Mormon Tabernacle Choir: A Biography (2015); Christian Wolff (with Christian Ashland, 2012); Henry Cowell, Bohemian (2002); and Sixties Rock: Garage, Psychedelic, and Other Satisfactions (1999). He has written numerous articles on music and composition.

His poetry includes, “Joseph’s Song,” “Singing in the Easter Choir Beside My Enemy,” “Skin Dive,” “To a Black Velvet Jesus,” “We Gather Together,” “Aesthetics Seminar as the Last Supper,” “Jesus Is Coming Back,” “Benediction,” “Whaling,” Day Seven,” Exodus,” “Moroni,” “Altarpiece,” and “Stone: A Symposium.” He was the editor of the journal American Music from 2007 to 2010.

He also has numerous compositions and arrangements to his credit, including L’Epitaphe de Monk, The Articles of Faith, Diode, Sophikos, Mystery Train, O Let the Solid Ground, Rain Tiger, Strategy of Looms, Spell, Prolepsis, and Remember, O Lord.

He has won numerous awards, grants, scholarships, and fellowships.

Hicks was born in 1956 in California. He is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.