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When you started out, how was it writing for groups that play contemporary classical, dealing mostly with notated music? Was it difficult for someone who’s essentially self-taught?
And how do you feel about that—when you send something out, like to the Silk Road Ensemble, and your hands are no longer on it?
I don’t have a lot of time to make what Ligeti called desk-drawer music. I tend to create for an occasion, for a specific opportunity. On the other hand, it’s good to practice composing. I check out how other composers have done things, whether it’s Ellington or Ligeti or Stockhausen or Kaija Saariaho or whoever. Brahms. That’s what everyone does, to be honest. That’s what I’ve always known to be the creative tradition. When I first met Steve Coleman 20 years ago, he was giving me his disquisition on Bartok. Did you know that he knows all the string quartets by heart? It’s actually pretty common among people in this area of music to be deeply engaged with other areas.
I will say, first of all, that none of these people have listened to anything I’ve done. That’s the main thing that characterizes all that “backlash.” It’s not a real backlash, in the sense that anyone is assessing my work and saying “No, not this guy.”
Sun 10/26, 3 PM Logan Center for the Arts University of Chicago $20, $15 for CHF members, $10 for students and teachers All ages
