1. How did your musical career begin?
Started piano lessons at age 8, and decided by age 11 that I wanted to be a classical pianist. Studied piano all throughout high school, went to the Interlochen summer music camp for two summers (age 12 and 13) and the Eastern Music Festival in N.C. (age 17). I gave my first full-ength, solo piano recital at age 13, playing Beethoven's "Moonlight' sonata, a Chopin Etude, Nocturne, and the "Fantasy Impromtue", and a few other things. But I have no idea how I really sounded, except that I was able to get through everything without falling apart! I have never wanted to be anything else but a musician, although I came to composition rather late, more or less starting in my years as a graduate student at the Univ. of Florida.

2. Who are your primary musical influences?
I had very good teachers in high school who stressed the musicality aspects of music, not just the technical things. As a composer, I also had some very good teachers. And I have to say that my parents were always very encouraging, too. They put up with listening to me practise the piano at all hours of the night, and then later as a composer, the sheets of music paper spread around everywhere--in those days (actually less than 20 years ago), we had to hand-copy out everything with pen and ink, and so the music paper was spread out on the living room and dining room floors so that the ink could dry on the velum paper. Nowadays, I think my students influence me more than anything!

3. What do you like to listen to when you aren't composing?
I try and listen to lots of different kinds of music--and things that are
NOT "music"--just "sounds." And nature sounds, like birds and water. But I
like to hear what the latest movie scores are like, and also what my
students are listening to....interesting "underground" music, and music
which I might not understand but am curious about.

4. What are your hobbies outside of music?
I enjoy reading and swimming--I often get musical kinds of ideas and
sensations when swimming laps--perhaps it's the flow of the water or some rhythmical thing when doing laps. I also like to do gardening when the weather is good--I find it amazing that something can grow from one little seed and then actually produce something that I can eat or beautiful flowers to look at.

5. What has been your greatest opportunity provided to you because of your musical talent?
I had many fine opportunities as a pianist and and enjoyed that performance aspect of my career. As a composer, there have been so many wonderful opportunities, that I find it really hard to pin-point any one thing--that is because one thing so often leads to another thing. Having the opportunity to write music for the EYO has been so rewarding in so many ways, because every piece has provided a new challenge, new dimensions to discover, new people to meet, new music to hear.

6. What are your favorite movies or television shows?
I'm a sucker for the old movies and classics like CASA BLANCA....and T.V.
Land shows on t.v.! But there are SO many movies that are interesting, each with their own particular story.

7. You can have dinner with any four people, living or dead. Who would they be?
This is a tough question, too, but here are the four right off-hand:
Leonardo da Vinci, Clara Schumann, Thomas Edison, and Walt Disney. Da Vinci because of all the facinating inventions and art that he did, Clara Schumann for her life with two great composers (Robert Schumann and her relationship with Brahms), and what it was like to be a female composer in that day and age, Edison because of the inventions that he came up with that so changed the world and the way we live, and Disney because, well, the creative genius that gave us The Mouse!

8. What would you like your legacy as a composer to be?
I think I would be happy just knowing that I wrote music that somehow
affected someone in a positive way--gave them inspiration, or a new way of hearing things, or of discovering something about themselves that they might not have thought about.

9. Who is your favorite historical figure?
This is also a hard question and one which I really cannot answer--so many people have changed the course of the world in so many ways--those that gave us war, those that gave us peace, those that gave us both.

10. Describe yourself in four words.
Free to create, Be.

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