Interviews with musicians, composers and conductors
As a composer, success is writing a piece that I’m pleased with. The form makes sense, things fit together in a satisfying way, and the piece feels solid and cohesive, as well as being pleasant to listen to (or at least I find it pleasant to listen to). Other things that invoke a sense of satisfaction include challenging myself in some way and then fulfilling the challenge in the way I was intending to, or not quite fulfilling it but discovering something else along the way.
The most enjoyable pieces to work on are usually ones where I am writing for someone I know well—whether it’s a performer, an ensemble, or a conductor. It’s satisfying to have an ongoing musical relationship in this sense. I am writing for someone I know well, then I already have a good sense of their musical personality, their strengths, their interests— I can play with these ideas and allow them to filter through and mix with my own ideas, to create something new.
I have been improvising and composing as long as I’ve been making music. I knew from very early on that I’d like to make music my career but didn’t know how feasible it was. Meanwhile, I found music appeared in my head and loved writing it down.
Who or what inspired you to take up composing, and pursue a career in music? Almost as soon as I started to learn music I
Concert music comes with a blank page and asks only what I have to say, which I find much more challenging. At the same time it is liberating in a completely different way to the constraints of film music
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