ABSTRACT
A lthough my abiding mission with my first orchestra in Corpus Christi was to learn the standard repertoire, after a few seasons I hungered for some new sounds, and I missed hanging out with composers. As a young conductor in New York I got a kick out of conducting pieces by my contemporaries, and often going over the music with them. I had this pleasure when I did Gunther Schuller’s “Little Blue Devil” with the jazz legends, pianist Bill Evans and bassist Scott LaFaro; Howard Brofsky’s “Horn Concertino” with soloist Daniel Cowen; David Amram’s “Shakespearian Concerto”; and I spoke with Robert Kurka’s very knowledgeable widow before I did his “Suite” from The Good Soldier Schweik. A concert without a new work, preferably a premiere, was rare. I decided that on my next trip to New York I would look for scores of new pieces. Fate intervened. I met Morton Feldman, in a snowstorm.
