Born and educated in Europe, composer Petr Kotik (born 1942), has been living in the United Stated since 1969. A New York City resident, Kotik is a performing musician (conductor and flutist) and the founder and director of the S.E.M. Ensemble which expanded in 1992 The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble (debut at Carnegie Hall tribute to John Cage with soloist David Tudor).

Among Kotik's best known compositions are Many Many Women (1976-78) on a text by Gertrude Stein and Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking (1978-81) on texts by R. Buckminster Fuller as well as recent orchestral works Quiescent Form (1996) and Music in Two Movements (1998-2002). Music in Two Movements is a nearly hour long composition divided into two movements, Fragment and Asymmetric Landing, which can be performed together or seperately. It was premiered in Alice Tully Hall in April 2002. Kotik has been the recipient of composition grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the prestigious composition award from the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts in 1997.