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If a composer is to reach his audience emotionally - and surely that's what theatre music is all about - he must reach the people through sounds they can relate to.

What inspires me is not so much the music as the opportunity to interact with composers. I think that has driven everything I've done.

I sort of enjoy being able to hear what other composers are doing and how they might score something differently than me. I enjoy that part.

Living composers writing for big band are very few and far between. There are not a lot of them, and I have a talent for doing it. I am zeroing in on what I do best.

The prime goal of an author is the same as a musician, which is to emotionally connect with the reader in some way or another.

It is always interesting and sometimes even important to have intimate knowledge of a composer's life, but it is not essential in order to understand the composer's works.

I am writing something which I find satisfying and which I am prepared to put my name to as a composer.

Ultimately, what we do as musicians, I think of us as a type of emotional engineer. We essential take these sound waves, this sound, and we organize it into emotion, and that's how we connect with our audiences.

Although technical discussions are interesting to composers, I suspect that the truly magical and spiritual powers of music arise from deeper levels of our psyche.