Steven Schick: It's About Time

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Weather Systems III – It’s About Time, the final volume in a three-volume series from “one of the great percussion virtuosos of our time” (San Francisco Chronicle) Steven Schick. Weather Systems is a set of recordings of the percussion music that has been most meaningful to Schick, which spans more than 100 years. Weather Systems III – It’s About Time will be released on November 20, 2026.

Percussionist, conductor, and author Steven Schick has championed contemporary percussion music by commissioning or premiering more than one hundred-fifty new works. The title of his series, Weather Systems, and the first album, A Hard Rain (2022), reflect Schick’s background growing up in a farming family in Iowa, always having one eye on the weather and in particular, on the rain. The second installment, Soundlines: On Language and the Land (2023), is an echo of Schick’s walk up the California coast: a musical changing of perspectives and connection with the world. In his liner notes, Schick writes, “Each [of these recordings] presents layered emotions in which a humorous façade dissolves to reveal deeper truths.”

This third volume in the series, It’s About Time, explores time as both a large-scale concept and a micro-temporal component of music. The 2-CD set features highly contrasting works for percussion by David Lang (Unchained Melody, String of Pearls, The Anvil Chorus), Michael Gordon (XY), Harrison Birtwistle (The Axe Manual), Iannis Xenakis (Rebonds), Brian Ferneyhough (Bone Alphabet), Kaija Saariaho (Six Japanese Gardens), and Rand Steiger (For Robert Erickson). Schick describes the collection as, “an ode to the reciprocal wisdom between past and present, between pieces I have lived with for decades and the newest of the new.” 

Disc I


David Lang: Unchained Melody (2002) (7:13) *


David Lang: String of Pearls (2006) (9:20)


David Lang: The Anvil Chorus (1991) (8:00)


Michael Gordon: XY (1998) (16:02)


Harrison Birtwistle: The Axe Manual (2000) (23:38) **

Disc II


Iannis Xenakis: Rebonds (1989) (12:41)


Brian Ferneyhough: Bone Alphabet (1992) (12:19)


Kaija Saariaho: Six Japanese Gardens (1994) (16:06)


Rand Steiger: For Robert Erickson (2024) (21:06