What was surprising, and also revealing, was how empowering it was to be in conversation where women in music were at the center, rather than on the margins of the discussion.

Thoughts on turning the visual into sound.

The annual John Donald Robb Composer’s Symposium at the University of New Mexico always includes an intriguingly eclectic array of music reflecting both regional creativity and a cross-section of current national trends.

How much creativity is out there that simply can’t find the time and space to flourish?

I have to start another piece but my head is not there yet, so I have been going to concerts to rejuvenate; I had the great pleasure of hearing Tony Arnold (soprano) and Movses Pogossian (violin) perform György Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments last week.

Is it possible for composers to speak directly from our experience, as playwrights and visual artists often do, or are we more like architects, who seem to work more with pure functional forms?

It has never been fashionable to reference a woman’s experience in music, or even generally understood.

Discernment listens for what is there, from the inside out; a deep study of the object without judging.

Teaching responsibly seems to require constant soul searching and occasional upheavals in approach, methodology, and perspective as I encounter new students, new times, new pedagogical philosophies, and new music.

The only thing a composer fundamentally communicates to any initiated listener is the music’s form.