Steven Mackey’s first musical passion was playing the electric guitar in rock bands based in northern California. He later discovered concert music and has composed for orchestras, chamber ensembles, dance and opera. Among his commissions are works for the Chicago, San Francisco and St Louis Symphonies, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestra of St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Swedish, Scottish and Irish Chamber Orchestras, BBC Philharmonic, the Kronos Quartet, the Brentano String Quartet, the Borromeo String Quartet and many others. As a guitarist he has performed his chamber music with the Arditti, Brentano, Borromeo and Kronos Quartets, the London Sinfonietta, Joey Baron, Fred Sherry and many others. He has performed his concertos with many conductors including, Dennis Russel Davies, Peter Eötvös, David Robertson, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas and David Zinman. Steven Mackey is currently Professor of Music and chairman of the music department at Princeton University where he has been a member of the faculty since 1985.