Composers love to write for symphony orchestras because the symphony is the Rolls Royce of musical instruments.

I began like all composers, writing for small groups. Chamber groups.

Well, American composers are the best composers. At this time in the world, we are where the energy is. We are the most diverse, the most iconoclastic, the most maverick, and the most skillful.

When I first wrote for orchestra, I didn't realize, when you have 20 people playing a violin line, that is very different than one person playing that line.

The Russian composers, especially, tricked the symphony orchestra into the kind of dynamic, rhythmic thing.

Writing a play, you start with less, so more is demanded of you. It's as if you have to not only write a symphony, but invent the instruments as well.