Just wanted to ask, my next door neighbor is a classical pianist with the San Francisco Orechestra. Do y'all ever collaborate with other orchestras?? BTW; you're beautiful!

Hello there. What inspires you to write or compose a piece in a certain style or time signature. I sometimes sit outside and listen to the birds in the morning and wonder if composers listen to their birdsongs and annotate notes on a page or if there is inspiration taken from nature. My last question: Do you remember the moment that inspired you to become a composer?

[deleted]

do you use a daw? if so, do you have a favourite orchestral vst?

[removed]

Favorite poem/phrase?

I made cancha yesterday and sang to the beat of the kernels popping. Ya clearly this is how we roll. Thank you for your art!!

I’m really so excited to hear your composition and again well done on this incredible achievement!

I generally like what I see getting developed these days -- A lot of exciting stuff. In other words, there's a lot of good music being produced for the most skilled players, incorporating all kinds of influences and drawing on cultures around the world.

This is wonderful, and yet, I'd love to see more attention for music for youth and/or young musicians, not just the elite high-level players. In classical music, young musicians tend to mostly play rather standard rep when they should be exposed to ALL of the riches out there. At my Academy (www.glfcam.com), we've started some initiatives where my talented mentees, who come from a lot of different demographics and draw on a myriad of different aesthetics, are composing music for pre-college kids to address this. I think valuing our kids would go a long way to bringing classical music firmly into the 21st century.

It's pretty unbelievable. As a composer, I'm about the internal story and what the ear receives. Adding in the theatrical element with costumes, set design, staging and the correlated technical challenges of writing for an orchestra in a pit (as opposed to out on top of the stage) is FASCINATING. I've fallen in love with this world (the singers cast, including the understudies, and the chorus are awesome) and hope that this is not the only opera project I'm offered.

Thanks for asking!

Is there any genre or movement you are excited to see developing? Or put another way, what is the new music that you are looking forward to seeing grow?

This is so wonderful! This must be like a dream come true! How are you feeling?

[removed]

Which Timeline^tm do you currently inhabit?

So, would you describe this as your mature process?

It might be hard to remember but do you remember your process before it became so personally..intuitive?

thanks I’m looking forward to your list. By the way, the influence does not have to be benign, just widespread, and obviously they do not have to be artists (because how could an artist’s influence be anything but benign?!)

Good choice. That man could convey any emotion amd complexity of a scene with the stirke of an anvil. The Mission by the way is a lovely soundtrack; Gabriel's Oboe hits me every time.

Ohhhhh yes. My mentee composers laugh that I'm constantly using food and cooking metaphors.

I grew up in Berkeley eating "chifa" or Peruvian-Chinese food. When my mom was growing up in Piura and Chimbote, Perú in the 40s-60s, this was the food that her Cantonese-Chinese father wanted to see cooked in their household. So, the model of delicious cultural-fusion certainly normalized cultural fusion in my own music today.

I’m ethnically Hispanic/Latina, and as an actor, I tend to associate the indulgence of food with indulgence of emotion or feeling. Do you associate your cultural or ethnic food with your music?

Oh, this means so much to me, Moose. Thank you for these kinds words. While I write my pieces for "the ages," who am I kidding, what's eminently real to me is what the performers think... :)

I've always thought that if aliens land on our planet, they would both marvel at our arts and feel great disappointment at our political tensions and enmities... I might very well play them your performance of Pachamama Meets an Ode, what with its message about centuries-long cross-cultural tensions and their correlating harm to the earth. The piece ends on a telling question tinged with hope; I'd hope for any outer galactic intelligent species to glom onto that and give humanity a chance.

I just did a quick search on "conductor motions" on YouTube, and a bunch of promising videos came up. Try that?

And for your six-year-old -- That's awesome he's into music! Have you tried looking up kiddie concerts in your area, either through your local orchestra or other ensembles? These tend to be shorter, encourage clapping at frequent points for that physical release for kids, etc. I'm also wondering about getting your kid some music lessons on his chosen instrument, or into a local little kiddie choir? Sounds like there's talent there for a proud daddy to cultivate! :)

Cheers!

Is there a YouTube video that can show me the motions that a conductor makes, and what it means?
Bonus question. How can I get my 6 year old in a classical music concert? He seriously loves it, but I'm just his dad and I'm not sure how well he'd behave.

Hello! I performed in Pachemama Meets and Ode earlier this year, and I just want to say that it was such a wonderful experience! It's such a visceral and emotional piece of music, and I really appreciate that I got to learn more about history through it. Thank you, and I can't wait to experience more of your work!

My question for you is: if aliens were to visit Earth, and you only had time to share one of your pieces with them, which one would you choose, and why?

[removed]