Matthew Schreibeis

I’m thrilled to have been selected for the Albany Symphony Orchestra’s Orchestrating in the 21st Century workshop and reading session.  As part of this event, I will compose a new work for members of the Albany Symphony and conductor David Alan Miller, to be premiered as part of their First Draughts Reading Session, and participate in workshops and masterclasses with composer Christopher Theofanidis.  These events are part of the larger American Music Festival—“Sing Out, New York!”, honoring New York’s role in civil rights history.  Among the prominent artists participating in this year’s festival are composers John Corigliano and David Del Tredici, soprano Hila Plitmann, composer/performer Molly Joyce, the Argus String Quartet, and others.  I’m so excited to be part of this opportunity and look forward to putting pencil to paper (and eraser to paper) over the next month in what will certainly the fastest composing I’ve done in some time!

After weeks of what amounts to blood, sweat, and tears—not to mention millions of e-mails—things are beginning to come into focus for our 2-day international composition conference—The Keyboard in the 21st Century—at HKBU.  As the website now shows, the conference will explore the range of styles and breadth of expression that make up contemporary keyboard music, including acoustic, electro-acoustic, and intermedia works for piano, harpsichord, and synthesizer.  The composers whose music we will hear represent a dozen countries and were selected for their unique artistic voices and ability to communicate vivid sonic experiences.  Alongside these performances, we will hear directly from featured composers George Tsontakis, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, and others through lectures and roundtable discussions.  The conference will also feature a concert of works by all HKBU faculty composers, including pianist Linda Yim presenting my recent work, Inner Truth.  I’m so looking forward to welcoming my composition colleagues to Hong Kong and HKBU this April.  As we gather from around the globe, I hope the sounds and dialogue of the conference will inspire not only deep intellectual inquiry but renewed creative fire!

I’m very pleased to share news that my solo piano work, Inner Truth, has been selected for performance at the Dot the Line Festival in Korea this May.  The performance by pianist Eunmi Ko will take place at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, a place I know well from previous visits and musical events.  Inner Truth was composed as part of a larger project honoring the centennial of Isang Yun’s birth, so it’s fitting and personally meaningful that the piece will be done in Korea. 

Inner Truth was most recently performed by Daniel Pesca at the University of Chicago and will be performed by Hong Kong pianist Linda Yim as part of The Keyboard in the 21st Century conference next month at HKBU.  I’m so happy to see the music—which I’ll admit took great pains to create—is finding favorable fingers in many parts of the world.   

What a pleasure it was to again hear pianist Daniel Pesca perform my work, Inner Truth, in Chicago.  Daniel premiered the work in June at PianoForte Chicago, recorded it in August at Oberlin, and this performance took place as part of his faculty recital at the University of Chicago.  It was clear from the start that the music was now thoroughly in his fingers, as well as his heart, and it was a thrill to hear him play again.  The program was a modified version of what he performed in June, with works by Carter, Knussen, Rands, Takemitsu, and Thomas.  This varied cast of characters was presented with natural drama and wit. Bravo, indeed!  

While in Chicago there was time to enjoy some of the city, including the glorious Art Institute.  I’ve been before, but it was time for a refresher, and I was again impressed with this cultural monument.  The two highlights from what I got to see on this visit were Calder’s Streetcar, a mobile which occasionally produces a soft clang when a small rubber tip randomly strikes a brass disk (a possible inspiration for future work?), and Chagall’s America Windows, a glorious blend of colors and light which draws us closer toward its warm, vibrant hues.  This piece alone would have been worth the trip to Chicago, but this combined with hearing music and seeing some old friends made it all the better. 

With 2019 just around the corner, I am very much looking forward to the new year. I’m also looking forward to the new semester at HKBU and especially to welcoming the fantastic American composer, George Tsontakis, as our Kennedy Wong Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Music for the spring term. George is the first faculty in the Arts to hold this esteemed professorship. I’m very happy to have “convinced” him to work with us!

George and I met in the summer of 2013 when I was a Composition Fellow at the Aspen Festival. Working with him, my late teacher, Steven Stucky, and a number of prominent guest composers, including Stephen Hartke and members of the “Class of ‘38” (John Corigliano, Joan Tower, John Harbison) was an incredible musical and personal experience. We’ve kept in touch since then, and I have learned a lot about music and the musical life from our conversations. In a field where one frequently encounters bitterness, George is a positive-thinking, forward-driving presence. Oh, and he also writes excellent—dramatic, expressive, memorable—music!

At HKBU George will teach a special topics course, work with composition students, and be part of an international conference I’m organizing, The Keyboard in the 21^st Century. His work will also be featured as part of the Beare’s Premiere Music Festival in January. With so much going on, I am hoping he has time to explore Hong Kong, both its travel guide highlights and the spots that only I (and, admittedly, a couple thousand other people) know. A happy new year indeed!

I’m very pleased that pianist Daniel Pesca will be giving a second performance of Inner Truth as part of a faculty recital at the University of Chicago on February 23.  Daniel gave the premiere of the work last June and more recently recorded the work as part of my upcoming Albany Records CD.  He is among the most committed and intelligent interpreters of new music I know.  Further details on the program, which includes works of Thomas, Rands, Carter, and Kunssen, is available here.

I’m very happy to announce The Keyboard in the 21^st Century, an international conference for composers to be held this April 4-5 at HKBU. Featuring performances by outstanding Hong Kong pianists and guest performers, the conference will showcase the breadth of creative voices working with a range of keyboard instruments. Significantly, we are interested in presenting works for piano, harpsichord, clavichord, fortepiano, organ, and synthesizer, with optional electronics. In addition to performances and roundtable discussions by participating composers, we are pleased to feature lectures and performances of music by George Tsontakis, Kennedy Wong Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Music at HKBU and Distinguished Composer-in-Residence at Bard College Conservatory of Music, and Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Featured Guest Composer and Professor of Composition at the Eastman School of Music. This conference will be one of the highlights of George’s activities this spring at HKBU. My recent piano work, Inner Truth, will also be performed. More information on the Call-for-Scores is available here.

I was very saddened and—perhaps more important—angered and disgusted to see the news of the attack on a synagogue in my hometown of Pittsburgh on October 27. While I did not know those who were taken from us through this terrible act, I know people who knew them, and I know the neighborhood of Squirrel Hill well. It is one of the many lovely and close-knit communities in Pittsburgh and its center of Jewish life.

Watching the continued senseless slaughter of people who’ve done nothing but commit the offense of “existing in the United States” from the other side of the world (and in a place with virtually zero gun crime) has only intensified the sick sense that my country is crumbling from within, and needlessly so. Rather than feeling hopeless, however, each new act of destruction on the part of sick individuals or a minority-elected government has inspired me to fight harder in the ways that I can to move (I cannot truly say return….) the country in the right direction.

With all this in mind—and for the first time ever in my mature creative life—I have felt not just the urge but the need to compose a work with a connection to current events. My works have been inspired by aspects of history, installation art, poetry, and, of course, other music, among many other things. However, I have rarely felt comfortable with the idea of writing a work “about” something that has happened, especially something as impacting as an event like this. Therefore, this will not be a work “about” this tragic event; it will not be programmatic. But it will have something to do with tension and something to do with pain and something to do with finding something positive amidst intense struggle. It will be my artistic response to this event.

As it happens, I have recently been talking with the stellar violinist, Olivia De Prato, first violinist of the Mivos Quartet and a dynamic soloist in her own right, about writing a new work. (Mivos gave an excellent premiere of my City Lights at the VIPA Festival in Valencia, Spain last summer.)   Therefore, I have begun sketching a solo violin work, Tree of Life, for her, which I hope will represent, if only in a small way, some of my feelings about this event. Olivia will be visiting Hong Kong and HKBU this coming January for a series of lectures and demonstrations, so I hope to have the work fleshed out enough to share with her at that time. I think it is fitting that I write for violin—an instrument I studied from a young age—in a work whose expressions will be so close to my heart.

Before boarding my flight back to Hong Kong (Is there a bigger contrast than small college town-Ohio and neon-clad Asian supercity?), I have time to report that the Albany Records recording session was an excellent experience, and it was a pleasure to work with some of the best in the business during our intensive week of rehearsals and recordings. I am very much forward to the next stages of making this CD come to life and confident that the final product—musically and sonically—will be something we can all be proud of. I would like to thank all my musicians—soprano Tony Arnold, conductor Tim Weiss, and the members of Zohn Collective—for their time and talents in making this week possible. Great thanks are also due to recording engineer Paul Eachus and the entire staff in recording services at Oberlin for their incredible ears and for making the process run smoothly from start to finish. “And that’s a wrap!”

Now on to dim sum.

My three weeks at Copland House have passed with the usual flash of residencies around the world.  The opening weeks seem slow—each hour of quiet and solitude sinking in as we slowly remember there was a world before the internet and the constant interruption of e-mail.  Then, little by little, the pace speeds up until—all at once and without warning—there are two or three days left.  Time to repack!  But where am I bound?

In this case, the answer is Oberlin, Ohio, where I will spend a week recording my portrait CD for Albany Records.  The musicians are travelling from near and far.  Tony Arnold, the star soprano with whom I have been blessed to work from the beginning on my Sandburg Songs, will be finishing up her teaching and performances at Tanglewood.  Members of Zohn Collective will be hitting the road (or air?) from Chicago, Cincinnati, Lexington, Nashville, Seattle, Georgia (the state), and Germany (the country).  Let’s not forget my own diversion-filled round-trip from Hong Kong!  Meanwhile, the intrepid conductor Tim Weiss will be at coming home to Oberlin Conservatory immediately following his work at Aspen.  How lucky am I to have found a time and place that works for all of us?

While my work Celebrations  was included in a recent CD of contemporary kayagŭm compositions in Korea, this Albany CD will be the first devoted solely to my work.  Thus, I am excited and—I’ll admit here if you promise not to tell anyone—a bit overwhelmed about the task before me.  With rehearsals and recording sessions fairly nonstop for the following week, my ears will be used to their max.  But I trust that with these musicians the effort will be worth it!

I hesitate to write too much for fear of interrupting the cool focus of my residency here at Copland House. However, I wanted to report progress on revisions of my guitar work, They Say, as well as my recent piano work, Inner Truth. While hindsight may not always be 20/20, there is something to be said for viewing a work from some distance, perhaps more objectively than in the heat of the creative moment.

I am enjoying the quiet, positive pressure of working at Aaron Copland’s piano and sturdy wood desk, not to mention listening to unexpected finds in the CD collection. A recording of the works of Henry Brandt has struck me quite strongly. I remember playing one of his works as a young violinist in the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony and thinking how interesting it was to have winds placed throughout the hall. Outside that experience as a performer, however, I’ve had little exposure to his music. The sheer force and color of some of what I’m hearing on this disc is enough to warrant further listening and study.

In addition to my listening activities, I have appreciated the many scores of previous residents (not to mention Copland’s own work), which are always readily available for those times when I’m wondering where to turn or what else is possible. With a little under a week left, I’m looking forward to further inspiration and discoveries here in this historic landmark and living testament to the continued influence of Copland as a titan of American music.

Tomorrow I will depart for my three week residency at Copland House, the former home of the acclaimed American composer, Aaron Copland, north of New York City. While in residence, I have a number of projects to pursue. Initially, I plan to make final revisions—some small, others rather significant—to three works that are among those to be recorded next month for my first portrait CD for Albany Records. Two of these works—They Say, for guitar, and Inner Truth, for piano —are very recent, having been premiered in April and June, respectively. The other work I will revise is much older.

Noticing, for clarinet and violin, was commissioned with support of a Subito Grant from American Composers Forum and premiered ages ago…way back in 2010! It is one of a number of works of mine to have connections with Korean traditional music.  In this case, the work was inspired by a specific performance I heard in New York. I tried to apply some of the techniques I observed in the music in my own Western instrument piece.  Although the piece has been performed successfully a number of times, there have always been a few spots that I wanted to tidy up in order to bring the piece to full maturity.  Now seems like the right time.

Revision is a tricky matter that I pursue with caution. One doesn’t want to get overly involved in changing an existing work, because it can lead one down a very long—perhaps never-ending—path. Still, after a work is premiered, I have often found a measure here or a beat there that require some fine tuning. While these changes may seem small on the surface, they often help to stabilize the work on a number of levels. Let us hope these modifications help the piece to “stand the test of time.”

Besides the preparatory work for my Albany recording, the main project I will pursue at Copland House is an orchestral work with which I have had what might be called an on-again, off-again relationship for a number of years. The details of this affair will have to wait for a future post. For now, I must pack my bags (again!) and prepare for tomorrow’s travels.

The busy summer season continues unabated! Following the recent premieres of Inner Truth in Chicago and City Lights in Valencia, Spain, I am pleased to share news of the premiere of my latest work, Resonant Memories, for carillon, by University of Michigan faculty carillonist, Tiffany Ng. Tiffany will premiere the work on July 27 at Middlebury College, with subsequent performances at Norwich University and Albany City Hall. As always, full information about upcoming performances and other activities can be found here.

In imagining my first composition for carillon, I found myself returning again and again to the the ephemeral quality of the instrument’s sound.  No matter how large or powerful the initial attack–whether single note or complex chord–it instantly began to fade away.  There was an aspect of inevitable disappearance that I found intriguing and that suggested a certain musical character I wanted to explore.

The work is cast in three broad sections, opening with a declamatory statement that quickly becomes more introspective as it moves to the instrument’s high register.  The contrasting middle section, marked energico, is characterized by continuous rhythmic activity, a series of accelerando phrases, and prominent use of the instrument’s low register.  The final section returns to the opening material, but it is here–quietly–that the “memories” part of the title presents itself, as slow, fading versions of the opening mix with brief interjections of the middle material.  Despite this generally hazy, dreamlike character, the work concludes with a grand, defiant gesture, spanning the instrument’s whole range and dynamic potential.

Because of my upcoming residency at Copland House, I will not be able to attend these performances. However, I eagerly await the recording and would like to thank Tiffany for her tireless support of my music and the music of numerous living composers.  Resonant Memories is dedicated to her.

Last night the Mivos Quartet gave the premiere of my new quartet, City Lights here at the VIPA Festival in Valencia, Spain. The performance was excellent, and I am grateful to Mivos for their commitment and musicality. One of the joys of chamber music, especially the string quartet, is the way individual musical personalities come together to form a cohesive unit. Mivos took full advantage of this potential while learning and performing my work, never shying away from their personal voices while making music together. It was a pleasure to hear and to see.

In high school I had a choice of learning a minimum of two years of either Spanish or French. Believing French to be more difficult, I opted for Spanish and stuck with it for four years. Little did I know that twenty years later I would find myself in beautiful Valencia, Spain struggling to remember any of what I had learned while trying to order food and drink! ¡Ayúdame!

I have travelled here for the VIPA Festival and to hear the premiere of my new string quartet, City Lights, for the Mivos Quartet. VIPA is run by composer Jorge Grossmann, faculty at Ithaca College and previously at UNLV, where—long ago—I met him while attending and later being commissioned by the Nevada Encounters of New Music Festival. In addition to Jorge, the faculty include Lei Liang from UCSD and Stefano Gervasoni from the Paris Conservatory. Mivos Quartet, of course, needs no introduction. As one of the most active string quartets in the US with a contemporary music focus, I am thrilled to hear what they make of my new work.

I arrived at the title City Lights partway through composition of the piece. In this work, I wanted to capture some of the frenzied energy of great urban centers, especially the way sights and sounds change in rapid and unpredictable succession. The work is cast in two broad sections, the first highly rhythmic—often syncopated—and the second more introspective. One might think of these musical sections as two aspects of the same idea, image, or place: the city up close with its bustling crowds and the city from a distance, its lights a sparkling blur of colors.

I have written before about how place affects my work, so it comes as no surprise to me that after two years of working in Hong Kong I am creating music with a connection to urban landscapes. I hope to explore aspects of this experience in more detail in a number of upcoming projects. For now, however, I look forward to City Lights, both in my music and in beautiful Valencia.

Just a quick note of thanks to pianist Daniel Pesca for his fantastic premiere of my new piano work, Inner Truth, last night at PianoForte Chicago. Daniel played with confidence through the work’s intricate passagework and brought a careful attention to detail and color throughout the more introspective opening passages. It was a pleasure to work with him, and I am very much looking forward to our continued collaboration this August in recording this and other chamber works as part of my first CD for Albany Records.

A composer himself, Daniel also premiered a piano etude on the program. His brief work offered a mix of playfulness and trouble-making with recollections of Messiaen, which I think offered a nice balance with the rest of the evening’s works: classics by Berg and Janacek, and local premieres of music of Augusta Read Thomas and Bernard Rands.

Next up on the nonstop summer tour of 2018 will be travel to Valencia, Spain for the VIPA Festival and a premiere by the marvelous Mivos Quartet. More from the other side of the pond!

Tonight I am in Chicago for the premiere of my new solo piano work, Inner Truth, by the wonderful pianist, Daniel Pesca, Artist-in-Residence and Director of Chamber Music at the University of Chicago.  Inner Truth came about as part of a larger commissioning project honoring the 2017 centennial birth year of the great Korean composer Isang Yun by the fantastic pianist, Eunmi Ko.

Yun is one of the more unique voices in 20th-century music, with work that seeks to join his very personal conception of the traditional music and traditional instruments of his home country with the modernist techniques he embraced when studying and working in Germany starting in the 1950s.  In learning more about Yun’s music, I came across a wonderful interview he did with Bruce Duffie in 1987 that included a particular quote that stood out for me:

“Music is the expression of an inner truth, and this inner truth is naturally a mirror of today’s events.”

I was so struck by these words—by how clear and honest they are—and so in writing my work, I wanted to reflect upon this idea of “inner truth”, something which might be rather quiet or hidden or elusive at the start, but which later emerges as a strong, bold, unwavering force–a force which was always with us from the very beginning.  My piece seeks to capture these two sides of this primal energy.

Chicago friends, please join us at PianoForte for a concert to include music of my former teacher, Augusta Read Thomas, my mentor, Bernard Rands, my friend, Daniel Pesca, plus Carter, Berg, and Janacek!

The term has come to a close; final exams are over; honors projects performed; grades submitted. All this must mean one thing: summer 2018 has begun!

My musical season starts with a personal and professional highlight. I will be travelling to New York to receive the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. What an honor this will be and a great chance to meet my fellow awardees and Academy members at this festive occasion.

Three premieres are set for this supposed “vacation” season. The action begins in June in Chicago, where pianist Daniel Pesca, Artist-in-Residence and Director of Chamber Music at the University of Chicago, will premiere Inner Truth. This work was composed for the centennial celebration of the late Korean composer, Isang Yun. July will feature the premiere of a new Hong Kong-inspired work for string quartet by the Mivos Quartet at the VIPA Festival in Valencia, Spain, followed by the premiere of a new work for carillon, Resonant Memories, by University Carillonist and Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan, Tiffany Ng. This is my first work for carillon, and I am so happy to share the music with audiences at the Middlebury College premiere, and in subsequent performances at Norwich University and Albany City Hall.

August is also packed, starting with a residency at Copland House and concluding with a weeklong recording session at Oberlin Conservatory, featuring soprano Tony Arnold, conductor Tim Weiss, and members of Zohn Collective. This project is part of my forthcoming Albany Records CD release.

I am thrilled to have the chance to work with so many outstanding musicians over the course of this coming summer and equally looking forward to all the travels and rich personal experiences these projects will entail. Let the games begin!

It was a pleasure to welcome composer Robert Beaser to HKBU. Beaser is in Hong Kong as the Distinguished Guest Composer of the Intimacy of Creativity, organized by composer Bright Sheng and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. I was so glad Bob was able to make the time to speak with our students about his approach to composing, as well as stylistic developments in the US. This was an especially interesting perspective for our students.

It’s hard to believe that I first met Bob way back in 2007 at the Bowdoin Festival while I was still a graduate student. I have enjoyed keeping in touch with him over the years and getting to know his music more, which I enjoy for the immediacy and range of its emotional impact. I vividly remember a performance of his guitar arrangement of the folk song, Shenandoah, at the June in Buffalo Festival in 2012. His music  exhibits absolute clarity without ever being simplistic, and I think this is a goal to which we can all aspire. As it happens, I will be seeing him again in just a short time at the American Academy of Arts and Letters Ceremonial where I will receive the Charles Ives Fellowship. I look forward to many future reunions!

I am writing while en route to Tampa, Florida, where I’m headed to the premiere of my new solo guitar work, They Say, as one of four invited composers for the University of South Florida’s New Music Festival.

More than most instruments, I have always felt the guitar is an instrument for storytelling, especially of very old tales. This concept led me to think about common vernacular expressions and the creation of a three-movement work, in which each brief movement’s title is taken from the opening words of three common expressions:

I. Actions speak

II. Absence makes

III. All good things

(I leave it to you to complete these phrase.)

As is often the case with my work, I was also interested in how musical elements can be recast with new meaning across multiple movements, a concept that seemed to fit well with the always-present-but-with-obscure-origin nature of these wisdom-laced phrases. As such, some of the elements introduced in the work’s opening are more fully-realized later on. Keeping with the storytelling dramatic character of the guitar, I also save a few small surprises—a few special requests—for the performer as things progress.

I am deeply indebted to the brilliant and open-minded guitarist, Dieter Hennings, for his patience and support in the making of this work. Dieter and I worked together at the soundSCAPE Festival in Italy, where I taught composition in summer 2016, and where he was part of the ensemble that premiered my Sandburg Songs. He will also take part in the Albany Records recording session of my first solo CD this summer at Oberlin Conservatory. Without him, this piece could not exist.

This will be my second visit to USF. In 2015 I gave a talk on the influence of Korean traditional music on my work as part of the Composition in Asia Symposium and Festival, organized by Professor John Robison. I’m very impressed by the level and breadth of music-making taking place at USF.

Prior to my premiere at USF, I will be making a visit to the New College of Florida in Sarasota to give a guest composer lecture to music students as a guest of Professors Maribeth Clark and Kye Ryung Park. After my recent talk at the University of Illinois at Chicago, I’m excited to again share my music and have a dialogue with the next generation of musical troublemakers!

I want to thank Professors Ruth Rosenberg and Marc Mellits for hosting my recent guest composer lecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. It was a pleasure to meet such inquisitive students at UIC and answer their questions about music, language, politics, and so many other subjects.   Farewell, Chicago, and next stop…Florida!

I am deeply honored to have been selected to receive the 2018 Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This award was established by the Academy with funds from the royalties of composer Charles Ives’ work by his widow, Harmony Ives, and—according to the letter I received—is “awarded annually to two composers of exceptional gifts.” How humbling it is to have any connection to America’s first great composer—one of twentieth-century music’s most far-sighted thinkers—and to receive this recognition from some of the American composers whose work I most admire. I am excited to meet the Academy members and my fellow awardees at the Ceremonial in New York this May.

I am very pleased to share news of an upcoming recording project. This summer, following my residency at Copland House, I will record my first portrait CD for Albany Records. The album, Sandburg Songs, will be named for my large-scale song cycle, which was commissioned by the soundSCAPE Festival in Italy and premiered by soprano Tony Arnold and conductor Tim Weiss with Eastman BroadBand in summer 2016. I’m so happy Tony and Tim have agreed to continue our collaboration for this recording and will be joined by the stellar musicians of Zohn Collective. In addition to Sandburg Songs, the CD will feature other chamber music from the last nine years, including my 2009 trio, In Search of Planet X, new works for solo piano and solo guitar, and possibly more.

I’m happy to share news of my selection for a Copland House Residency Award for 2017-18.  This is a great honor, which will allow me to live and work at the former home of composer Aaron Copland, in Cortlandt, New York, in summer 2018.

Every artist colony and fellowship has its own atmosphere, customs, and charm, and I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing many of them, most recently MacDowell.  Copland House is unique in that it hosts only composers and hosts only one composer at a time.  It is difficult to express the full range of feelings a composer might feel when writing a new work at Copland’s own piano and desk—the same piano and desk where he wrote both Connotations and Inscape.  Suffice to say, it will be a privilege.

I enjoyed reading Kate Guadagnino’s recent article in the New York Times Magazine, “The Rooms Where Writers Work.”  As the title implies, it’s a look at the physical spaces where writers do their writing, what I would consider the literal “creative space.”  While it only provides profiles of writers, the article’s concerns could just as easily be applied to the creative spaces of composers.  We all have our preferences and habits, and changing them can be met with resistance, depending on personality type.  Some composers need a piano for most of their work, while others see the piano as a crutch.  Some composers need total quiet, while others find a certain level of sound distraction to be helpful.  There are those who work in the morning and those at night. Christopher Rouse once described himself as “an afternoon composer.”

I have often found myself composing in coffee shops or other public spaces.  (Case in point: about two-thirds of my dissertation orchestral work was composed on the second floor of a Philadelphia Starbucks.)  Counterintuitive as it might seem, I find myself more focused when working in public, including places where I must “tune out” some background sound.  Perhaps my working intentions are clearer when confronted with a level distraction.  At the same time, I must use the piano during certain stages of the compositional process, and for this I am adamant about needing a grand piano (Baby grands work; what I need is a certain resonance.) and have found great benefits in the quiet isolation and beautiful views often found at artist colonies.  I would specifically cite the whole atmosphere—piano combined with the acoustics of the room combined with open windows looking out on to the Mediterranean, with its birds and waves and sunsets—at Camargo Foundation in France as being directly responsible for some of the warm, lyrical sound world of my Sandburg Songs.  I cannot speak for other composers, but it is clear to me that environment affects my work.  (As I walk the busy streets of Hong Kong, I have nearly planned out the form of an upcoming Hong Kong-inspired string quartet I will write this year!)

One of the ongoing challenges of creative work is to understand how one does it best, and part of that is when and where to work.  Of course, there are no rules, no correct or incorrect; only successful or unsuccessful, or more or less ideal.  Like almost everything about the creative process, it is a combination of observation and action that allows us to complete our task.