One of the things I notice, you’re kind of like a romantic composer out of place and out of time, living in the year 2021. Because there’s Mahler and Wagner in a lot of your music, there’s also some Brahmsian qualities.
I remember once you made a comment to me that it seemed like I was still finding my voice. And I think that that’s continued, that path. Like, I really don’t think much about if I’m romantic or tried to place myself in any kind of way. If I write music that sounds out of place, it’s because in a lot of ways my life is not so different from those historical composers. I work in a church. I’m like a little kapellmeister down here, you know? That’s my job. And what is the music that we play? Every week I play a Brahms Sonata or songs, and it’s mostly that kind of music. And I love that music so it comes through when I write. But I would say more than romantic, I’d say that I have a polyglot language because really I listen to all kinds of music. I love contemporary music as well. I take what I can and it’s just tools that go into the tool bag and as I go, I just take them out as I need them.
Would you say you listen to more music than you play or compose, or is it an equal balance?
When I was younger, I would definitely listen to a lot of music. The Library at Rutgers had a huge music collection. I was listening to five, ten CDs a day. These CDs were all classical art music, contemporary music. There’s a very strong current of experimental contemporary music at Rutgers when I was there, because Charles Warning had taught there for a number of years. So there was that kind of element in the air. But as time goes on, I would say now I listen mostly to contemporary music, you know, new stuff. I’m very interested in what my colleagues are doing, especially people that I know, people that I have some kind of connection with, I really like to support them and listen to them.