Insanity is the act of doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results.

There’s a lot of truth in that saying. If you’ve submitted the same resume to 100 job openings, and haven’t received any calls for an interview, it is probably time to redesign the resume. Similarly, if you’ve been in a job for 10 years and, in each of those years, been passed over for a promotion, it may be time to try something different – either working on relationship skills, or getting some advanced training outside of work. << MORE >>

Does music have the power to change the world?

In May of 1992 a grenade was thrown into a bread line in a pedestrian precinct in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war. Tragically, twenty-two people were killed in the explosion. << MORE >>

This past weekend I decided to check out the offerings of a used CD store in town. I was surprised to find a really good selection of Classical music CDs and ended up purchasing about 10 discs.

One of the recordings I picked up was the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus performing Mozart’s Requiem. I was trying to get some work done yesterday while listening to the piece, but I found the music so compelling, that I simply had to stop what I was doing on multiple occasions and focus on the composition. I could ... << MORE >>

Have you ever been really pissed off?  I mean, white-hot venom, spittin' nails pissed off?  

What angered me even more about this situation, was that the piece ...

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The dress rehearsal – for a composer from out of town, these can be very tricky rituals to negotiate. The ensemble has been thoughtful enough to include you in their final rehearsal, but with only a few hours until the performance, and limited rehearsal time remaining, what do you focus on and how do you temper any criticism?

In an ideal world, an ensemble would involve the composer earlier in the process, after the nuts and bolts of the piece have been ...

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Do you remember when you were 18? I used to play tennis in flip-flops and had the energy to compose all night, get an hour or two of sleep, then throw on a stocking cap and go to class. I used to think I was invincible.

That was then, this is now.

In early 2009, I decided to get back into shape. I began running – first alternating running and walking – then eventually progressing to where I could run up to two or three miles with relative ease. I was ... << MORE >>

This past weekend I attended a concert where a work for electronic media was presented. The piece had been realized in the composer’s studio and was delivered via two speakers on the stage. I found the experience of sitting in a crowd and looking on the concert stage at a set of speakers to be quite strange. I found myself missing the human interaction that comes from a performer making music in front of me. << MORE >>

"So, what do you play?" If I had a nickel for every time this question was asked of me, I’d be a rich man. Usually, when people find out I’m a composer, they seem very excited to learn what instrument I play. << MORE >>

A 2010 IBM survey of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the most sought after leadership competency in current and future employees. This comes as no surprise. In an economy where consumers have less money to spend, many corporations feel the need to discount and more aggressively market their product offerings to remain afloat. Creative employees can come up with new ideas to significantly reduce the costs of getting a product to market and for capturing the buyer’s interest, once the product is there.

The survey’s findings were published in the July 19th Newsweek article ‘Creativity in ... << MORE >>

Le Marteau Sans Maitre – it’s one of Pierre Boulez’s most heralded works. Because of its alleged historical importance, I’ve listened to it on many occasions, trying to warm to its structure. Repeated exposure however, has left me more, rather than less, cold to it as a work of art. I’ve never been able to grasp the keys that allow me to penetrate it, and gain access to its creative world.

There are many works, on the other hand, that I’ve warmed to after repeated hearings – like Anton Webern’s Opus ... << MORE >>