I actually don't like this term, "classic." It's wrong, but we don't have a better word at the moment.

The underlying process in Northern music tends to be slower and continuous, whatever's happening on the surface; in Southern music the underlying process is always faster.

This country, and the West Coast, especially, is bad at preserving any cultural legacy.

With American orchestras, in particular, because they play in such huge halls, getting a true pianissimo is very hard.

I've learned a lot from the masters of orchestration, like Ravel and Stravinsky.

I think we still do have a PR problem in the sense that these institutions portray themselves quite often as a museum without the contemporary wing. For a young cutting-edge person, why would you get into that sort of business, which is very clearly geared towards dead or almost dead people?

I think if you would like to describe composing as an act with one word, "slow" would be the word.