My Normal Day

I spent the past two days in Normal, Illinois at the Wonsook Kim College of Fine arts at Illinois State University working with Katherine Lewis's viola class. Dr. Lewis created a class project for her students to choose pieces by a single living composer, and perform them in a concert.

And I am so honored that she chose me.

It takes under two hours to drive to Normal, so I was able to get to hear the all the students play before the performance. On Monday afternoon I got to hear the entire class play ensemble pieces, and on Tuesday morning before the concert I got to work with students individually.  Fortunately there was nothing about viola playing that I had to address because of Dr. Lewis's superb teaching, so it was all about the music.

It was overwhelming to me to see and hear how seriously these young people (freshmen through graduate students) take their work, and how much they care about one another and support one another.

Their concert was all about the music. I felt myself becoming invisible in the very best way, because as a composer I had done my job (and in this case for an instrument that I know most intimately) and the music could flow the way it wanted to flow through the hands, arms, ears, and hearts of young musicians I had only just met, who enjoyed the opportunity of playing for a composer.

I spent a great deal of time and took a great deal of care (over the years) to provide detailed "maps" that can lead to deep musical expression. Seeing and hearing that a "map" is trustworthy means everything to me. Hearing an hour-long concert is overwhelming.

I do my work in relative isolation, and though I make it available, and do my best to let people know about it, I do it to please myself. But what a joy it is to find that in putting together pieces that help me express myself, I have managed to write a body of music that has meaning to a whole class of young violists, and the people in the audience they played it for yesterday.