“For harp, textbooks all talk about the range, they talk about the pedals, they talk about glissandos and some extended techniques. Most of the unplayable music I get has nothing to do with any of that.”

“...I wrote that script, I recorded it, and I was like, ‘this is what I’m going to do. This is how I’m going to promote my career. This is how I’m going to further my career and this is how I’m going to do it the way I want to do it.”

"We've got 8 billion people in the world. Which means there is 8 billion ways to be a person. And everybody that is alive is literally their own universe; their own beautiful universe of experience and perspective, with an incredibly colorful story."

"Part of it is always the same: we want to package this up in an interesting way and bring people in who are hearing this music for the first time, or say, 'Wow, I didn't know there were so many composers out there. That's amazing!'"

"One of the messages that I hope will come out of our talk is that people try to have more of an open mind, not make assumptions and be kind to one another."

“It was 2003, and I came to NYC with Greg Cornelius who is a saxophonist and composer at Bowling Green. And he and I were driving in his Dodge Caravan and I think we were listening to Music for 18 Musicians, and it was raining, and I remember seeing the city lights of New York, and just being overwhelmed with this idea that I need to be here.”

“You know I’m a Seth Godin fan. When he talks about education he says one of the problems right now is we’ve been teachings students how to get the right answer. And that is the wrong way to do it. We want people who can ask the right questions. So what does that mean for music?”

“Those of us that have these very complicated internal lives as artists, we’re so lucky; because we carry our world with us all of the time.”

“The point is obviously not the colonoscopy, the point is what we remember. And music is all about memory. When you write music, if you don’t appeal to the person's memory at all, it’s not going to have much of an impact.”

“Here’s the suffering: I just made the statement ‘I really appreciate music when people are being honest.’ And then we bring in ‘voice’ into that. Now, when someone puts pen to paper if they’re concerned about being honest and being true to their voice, I feel like that is a recipe to not write anything at all.”

“I think that exploring new sounds is something that our future audiences deserve because there is so much more to say.”

“It’s very unlikely I'll have a full-time position with an orchestra as a pianist as my career. That is not a thing that happens to too many people these days. So, if not that, sink or swim, I have to start thinking about my career in a different way.”

“Failure is information. And it helps everybody do better work next time.”

“What does it mean to write an opera? What does it mean to put something on stage and to write something with the purpose of there being physical action to do?”

“Productivity is not about getting the most done. Productivity is about getting to the end of your day and feeling like you got enough done.”

“Music is not who you are, it's what you do and what you love.”

“Hearing a shadow of the sound before you make it.”

“My fundamental artistic drive is to do things with my friends, and sometimes I can care less about the actual music."

If you are interested in starting a chamber ensemble, check out this episode.

“I think purpose is an extension of empathy. And I think people who are devoid of empathy have no purpose.” No stone was left unturned. We drank some scotch and traversed a myriad of topics in great depth. To quote Alan one last time, "you are in for the full 150-minute experience. Pull up a chair. Here we go."