Composer/conductor Rand Steiger was born in New York City in 1957. His compositions have been performed and commissioned by many leading ensembles and soloists including Alan Feinberg, Daniel Druckman, the American Composers Orchestra, Ircam, La Jolla Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Maya Beiser and Steven Schick, San Diego Symphony, Southbank Sinfonia, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he served as Composer Fellow from 1987 through 1989. Current projects include new works for the Arditti String Quartet and Prism Saxophone Quartet. His compositions and performances are recorded on the Centaur, CRI, Crystal, Einstein, Koch, Mode, New Albion, New World and Nonesuch labels, and new projects are in development for Bridge, EMF, Quartz, and New World.

Of late, his work has centered on the combination of traditional instruments with real-time digital audio signal processing and spatialization, including Ecosphere for large chamber ensemble, developed during residencies at Ircam and premiered by the Ensemble Intercontemporain at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In Spring 2005 three new works with electronics were premiered, including Résonateur, composed for the Ensemble Sospeso to commemorate the 80th birthday of Pierre Boulez, and Dreamscape, commissioned by the New York chamber ensemble Mosaic. Previously he worked with Miller Puckette and Vibeke Sorensen on the creation of a system for networked, real-time computer graphics and music, (supported by a three year grant from the Intel Research Council.)

Steiger is also active as a conductor specializing in contemporary works. He has conducted the Arditti Quartet, Aspen Chamber Ensemble, CalArts Twentieth-Century Players, Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, New York New Music Ensemble, Sonor, Ensemble Sospeso, and the California EAR Unit, of which he was the founding artistic director. Among his recordings as conductor are operas by Hilda Paredes and Anthony Davis, and works by Carter, Reynolds, Stockhausen, Subotnick, and Xenakis. He has also conducted many premieres, including works of Andriessen, Babbitt, Boulez, Carter, Ferneyhough, Harvey, Kernis, Newton, Nono, Reynolds, Riley, Rudders, Rzewski, Saariaho, Scelsi, Subotnick, Takemitsu, Tavener, and Tuur. This season he will conduct Feldman, Levine and his own works with the Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain (Switzerland) and Hoey, Mahler and Sibelius with the La Jolla Symphony.

Steiger was a member of the Faculty of California Institute of the Arts from 1982 through 1987, and is currently Chair of the Music Department at the University of California, San Diego.