As a composer, what do you look out for?

“Look out for” as in avoid or “look out for ” as in a never-ending search for sounds and ideas?

In answer to the first, I have to “look out for” anything too obviously derivative unless it’s intentional and meant in an ironic way. In the other sense, I’m always on the lookout for sounds or motives that can be reconfigured in a way that has some of the original affect but sounds fresh.

As an artist, how do you nourish the growth of your interior world?

Mostly by reading and trying to understand the wellspring of great authors and thinkers. Authors who have influenced my thinking have been: Louis Menand (The Metaphysical Club), Daniel Levitin (This is Your Brain on Music), Edmund Wilson (Axel’s Castle, and anything else he has written), Michael Kimmelman, and Gustave Flaubert (The Letters of Gustave Flaubert). Some of the fiction writers I’ve turned to repeatedly are: John Gardner, Aldous Huxley, André Gide, Thomas Mann, Saul Bellow, and Honoré de Balzac.

I also find seeking out and contemplating great visual art helpful in the appreciation of life. I’m more drawn to abstraction and expressionism, as they are closer to what music communicates. Music is not as successful when the goal is programmatic…

I also find seeking out and contemplating great visual art helpful in the appreciation of life. I’m more drawn to abstraction and expressionism, as they are closer to what music communicates. Music is not as successful when the goal is programmatic, and this is the same case for the visual arts when it comes to communicating realism. Abstract art communicates feelings so well, and I relate to that. Specifically, I like Mark Rothko, Constantin Brancusi, Marcel Duchamp, Brice Marden and Balthus.

What are your working habits? How is a typical, fruitful working day like for you?

My working habits are not really habits. It depends on what I need to learn — a new or unfamiliar orchestral work or a chamber music piece. I try to get a certain amount of scale practice every day. Mostly I concentrate on staying focused on fundamentals while rehearsing.

A fruitful day could include some scale practice, some piano practice, a couple of hours working on a composition, a couple of hours working out at the gym or at home, a martini, and a good book if I don’t have a concert to play.

What do you now seek in music and in life?

Music composition is one of the most important plans I have. I would also like to become familiar with all the wonderful music I have yet to hear and internalize.

I also might want to become a martyr and get in on that “seventy virgins” thing.