Anyone who has worked with me on performances or recordings should be able to tell you how very uncomfortable I am with addressing groups—either audiences or performers—with regard to my compositions. This reluctance is connected, no doubt, to my discomfort with detailed program notes, but it also has to do with a general shyness about public speaking, and I am certainly not a very good extemporizer on the subject of compositional background or inspiration. I have more than once demurred when given the opportunity to talk to performers who were …

Not long ago I read several informal opinions on the presentation of Philip Glass‘ opera, Satyagraha, by the Metropolitan Opera. I say informal opinions because these were short comments on a handful of social media sites rather than actual critical reviews or articles. I mention this because I was struck by the somewhat intemperate tone taken by the writers of these messages; it is clear that the writers were not best pleased with either the production or the work itself, and in one case the writer was distressed by …

“A work will only have deep resonance if the kind of darkness I can generate is something that is resident in me already.” — Anish Kapoor
I am feeling a bit dreamy this evening. It is a strange feeling in this day and time, particularly when faced with the stubbornly unsubtle pace of life in a city pushed to the limit of enforced gaiety by the current bread-and-circuses offering of our thoughtless public servants, but there is an explanation for it, and a reason for my treasuring of this state in …