Quotes

The voice is not just another instrument. It's the instrument par excellence, the original instrument, a part of the performer rather than an adjunct to him.

I do think of myself as a Minnesota composer,

A parent inculcates ideas, develops tastes, provides guidance, and in effect molds the child from birth through its early years. But the child soon develops its own ideas, cultivates its own tastes, resists external guidance, and ultimately becomes its own master, often with unanticipated results. My compositions, like children, have surprised me that way.