[1] The New York Times said his “technical resources and imagination seem limitless"[2] while JazzTimes called him “revolutionary.”[3] Dick invented the "glissando headjoint" a custom flute modification allowing the player to achieve effects similar to the whammy bar of an electric guitar.

At Yale College, Dick earned a BA degree,[5] and met Robert Morris, a composer and theorist, who mentored him as he wrote his first compositions.

While at Yale, Dick wrote his first book: THE OTHER FLUTE: A Performance Manual of Contemporary Techniques,[8] and then earned his master's degree in composition, studying with Morris as well as electronic music with Bulant Arel and Jacob Druckman.

[10] After leaving school in Spring 1973, Dick lived in New Haven, Connecticut until September 1977, when he moved to Buffalo, New York to join the contemporary music group, the Creative Associates.

[12] In this period, he self-published The Revised Edition of THE OTHER FLUTE: A Performance Manual of Contemporary Technique and his later books, compositions and instructional recordings through his Multiple Breath Music Company.

[citation needed] Dick's recitals today primarily consist of his compositions and improvisations, occasionally incorporating the influences of Paul Hindemith, Georg Philipp Telemann and Jimi Hendrix into his repertoire.

[15] Dick is the inventor of the Glissando Headjoint, a trademarked telescoping flute mouthpiece which allows the flutist to slide and extend notes.