Interviews with musicians, composers and conductors
Giving people experiences of learning and listening are some of the most exciting prospects of my job as a composer
Our repertoire is vast – it is one of the reasons the four of us love playing quartets. We play music from all eras, and especially enjoy playing traditional repertoire alongside contemporary music. But one composer whose works we return to again and again is Bartók.
The experience of a live concert is what has always inspired me most; the atmosphere and vibrations of a hall or special place, the expectations, the excitement, the communication, the feeling of tension and releasing tension. What I love about a live concert experience is the feeling that you are creating a unique moment in time, in history even, in which everything is special.
It’s no secret that avant-garde music communities outside of the classical spectrum have managed to evolve, thrive and be culturally relevant among the wider music populace. You have to ask yourself why classical music isn’t reaching those same heights.
For classical music to be relevant it must reflect the time and culture in which it was created.
