You can't pander to your audience. You might in the short term, but ultimately you can't hoodwink them, either.

At the moment, in Britain we're facing such enormous cutbacks in education programs and music programs and art programs that you feel you are knocking your head against a brick wall.

You don't underestimate either players or audience in any circumstances.

I'm not actually teaching any more, but I am writing pieces for schools all the time, and for kids.

If you don't get feedback from your performers and your audience, you're going to be working in a vacuum.

The establishment in Britain is certainly against the arts and against education. If something doesn't make a profit, it's invalid, and art doesn't make a profit in that sense.

I recently did a piece for the Boston Pops and John Williams, and I hope that it's as well a composed piece as I've ever done for any other medium or occasion.