Composer, pianist and music essayist, Stevan Kovacs Tickmayer was born in 1963 ( Novi Sad , Vojvodina / ex-Yugoslavia) as a member of Hungarian national minority. Since 1991, he lives in France .

Studied piano & double bass, graduated in composition at the Academy Of Arts in Novi Sad under Rudolf Brucci, subsequently studied composition with Louis Andriessen & Diderick Wagenaar at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. He had also a scholarship from the Polish Section of ISCM. With the members of his ensemble studied with Marta and György Kurtàg and by time established a long-term friendship with them.

In 1986 formed his ensemble Tickmayer Formatio in which classical trained musicians was employed as well as new jazz or improvised rock performers. Very soon, the group got an international profile: in different combinations over than thirty musicians collaborated with the group. For four years, Tickmayer was a member of the editorial of New Symposium, a magazine for social questions, art & culture in Novi Sad. In this period, he organized two international festivals for contemporary music & arts. In 1988, he gave lectures in summer course for improvised & composed music in Szombathely (Hungary) and one year later formed a piano duo with the father figure of Hungarian contemporary improvised music György Szabados. In the period of 1990-1997 he composed music and performed it with his Formatio for the Orleans based dance group Jel led by the choreographer Josef Nadj. In 1997 participated in the world premiere of Kurtàg's Six Pieces For Trombone & Piano, in Amsterdam. In the summer of 1999 was invited as a resident artist by ART/OMI, New York. In 2003 Tickmayer was invited by Gidon Kremer as a composer in residence on the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival. During this residence several of his pieces were performed and world premiered.

Tickmayer has collaborated /or performed /or recorded with classical musicians and ensembles as: Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica, Keller Quartet, Netherlands Blazers Ensemble, De Volharding, David Geringas, Tatiana Vassilieva, Alexei Ogrintchouk, Finghin Collins; as well as with improvisers as: Fred Frith, Chris Cutler, Iva Bittova, Peter Kowald, Gyorgy Szabados, Paul Termos, Dresch Mihaly, Grencso Istvan and many others.