La Jolla Symphony & Chorus Music Director Steven Schick

What does La Jolla Symphony & Chorus Music Director Steven Schick have in common with such classical music legends as Michael Tilson-thomas and the late Leonard Bernstein? All three have been awarded the Ditson Conductor’s Award, one of the world’s most distinguished honors for orchestral leaders.

“I had no idea I was even being considered for the award,”

Schick, an acclaimed percussionist and longtime UC San Diego music professor, told the Uniontribune on June 26.

Named for arts philanthropist Alice M. Ditson and established in 1945, the Ditson is the nation’s oldest annual award honoring conductors for their contributions to American music and their entire body of work.

A 2014 Percussion Hall of Fame inductee, Schick was the 2015 music director at the famed Ojai Music Festival. In 2018, he curated the San Diego Symphony’s genre-blurring 27-concert series “It’s About Time.” Were it not for the coronavirus pandemic, he would have spent part of January leading the symphony’s nowpostponed “In the Name of the Earth” festival.

Winning the 2020 Ditson award brings Schick full circle.

“It’s a remarkable and humbling moment to be mentioned in the same breath as some of the previous Ditson honorees,” he said. “And the 1980 honoree, James A. Dixon, was my orchestra conductor at the University of Iowa when I was a student. To win the same award as him now is probably the most meaningful aspect of this for me. He was the towering musical presence for me when I was a student.”

2020 recipient of the Ditson Conductor’s Award

BILL DEAN