When I was in Paris, all of the German refugees began to flow in and it was a very sad time.

Why write for the orchestra? For one thing it's a very challenging problem.

The first thing that struck me about contemporary music in general had been thatthere was not much interest in rhythm.

Aaron Copland was a man that had a very specific point of view about what music should be which was that, he felt that new music should have the composer should show a personality in his music.

That was one of the big problems when I was at Harvard studying music. We had to write choral pieces in the style of Brahms or Mendelssohn, which was distressing because in the end you realized how good Brahms is, and how bad you are.

Almost every one of my various zero numbered birthdays has had a big concert in London and often in Paris.

When I was in Paris, all of the German refugees began to flow in and it was a very sad time.