I remember, at MIT, it was a big snowstorm, and John Cage and David Tudor came and performed on the stage at MIT. ((Counterpoint, John Cage)) Only a few people in the audience, but I thought to myself gee, these guys are traveling, they’re working, had to get up early. They set up a concert, they’re doing it themselves. They’re not waiting for the Boston Symphony to — you know what I’m saying? They were going out into the world themselves doing it.

And that was inspiring. And I think younger composers are doing that exactly. I mean the amount of energy and performance you see in any week in Manhattan alone is just amazing. All these — you know what I mean? And that was very important, that we weren’t stuck in academic environments or something. We would actively go out and perform anywhere, almost. Some of my colleagues at school at Brandeis were getting very bitter that people weren’t playing their work. And I was just out with John Cage and David Tudor, they’re not bitter, they’re not waiting, they’re actually going out and playing their work.

Actually all those 19th century composers were that way, you read about Hector Berlioz doing concerts and dealing with the money and the tickets and all that stuff. So, it was only natural for us to do that.