After graduating from Curtis, she was for one season assistant conductor to the Verbier Festival Orchestra, training with James Levine.
[9][11] She has collaborated with many artists including Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Rufus Wainwright, Jaime Laredo, Hilary Hahn, Ben Folds, Smokey Robinson, and Sting, for whom she served as conductor on the final leg of his Symphonicities Tour.
In June 2012 she conducted the opening concert of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, in a program featuring Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Sumi Jo and Jackie Evancho.
She has conducted some famous film music scores with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, including a concert of masterpieces by Italian composer Ennio Morricone and his Dollars Trilogy, as well as works by Nino Rota.
[12] Hicks lives in San Francisco with her husband, horn player Paul LaFollette, whom she met while studying at the Curtis Institute of Music.