Born in San Jose, California, Michael Hicks graduated from BYU in Music Composition in 1980. He later received a DMA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1984 and has been teaching at BYU since 1985. His chamber and solo works have been performed and recorded by BYU faculty and student artists and by other performers around the country and at events of the American Society of University Composers, Cincinnati Composers Guild, and the Subtropics Music Festival. He has also authored historical and analytical articles that have appeared in many books and journals. His Mormon-related articles and poetry have appeared in several books and in the journals. In August 2006 he was appointed editor of the journal American Music. His awards include the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award (1994, 2003 and 2010), the Frances and Emily Chipman Award (Mormon History Association, 1989), and the Morris S. Rosenblatt Award (Utah Historical Society, 1991). He and his wife Pamela are the parents of four children.