Whenever I get asked to write orchestra music or music that is for a lot of players, I try to make it a little sad.

I think my generation is a lost generation in a way.

Because I had been in conservatory for so long, I was jealous of my friends in bands.

Writing orchestra music, you need for the emotional content to come from everyone doing everything together, adding up as it goes, a crowd mentality.

As a composer you want to tell musicians two completely contradictory things. You want to say, "Play exactly what I wrote, but bring your own thing to it." In a lot of ways they feel like opposites, but in a sense, my job is to cajole or encourage decisions that I approve of.

I'm trying to phase out my availability on the phone. People call you when you're walking down the street and say the most random stuff.

Riding a horse is a relationship with a foreign creature, and with musicians it's a similar thing: "OK, I'm going to put something on the page that will spook you into rushing." Little games you can play.