I think that I draw inspiration from a number of sources a lot of my output as
a composer and arranger relates to my own heritage as an african-american I
have arranged many african-american spirituals for young voices as well as
mature voices and advanced voices in those cases the the lyrics and the
melodic material and even sometimes the rhythmic content inspires me toward an
arrangement that I hope will be fresh and innovative and it's inspiring to the
singers who perform the piece I also draw a lot of inspiration from great
poetry in particular Langston Hughes is one of my favorite poets and even though
he died in 1967 which was three years before I was born his writing seems to
live on even into the 21st century a lot of his writing deals with issues
of equality and social justice and I think that these are very relevant
topics even for us today for young people as well as adults so I have set a
number of life's muse pieces to music because I find that what he has to say
to be so relevant and so poignant and so inspiring so the work of Langston Hughes
is definitely very important to me many people have asked me when on earth do I
find time to write writing is a very personal process it's one in which I
have to have absolute quiet and solitude so to be
quite honest with you much of my writing takes place on an airplane I write most
of my music on an airplane and that's because I'm sitting on a flight there's
a lot of time to have one's thoughts to oneself there is a lot of time to to
write music I'm an old-fashioned composer in that I do not use finale
until it's time to engrave the piece I have pads of manuscript paper that I
take with me everywhere I go and when I have a thought or an idea I take out the
manuscript pad and listen to the voices within and I began writing yes when I
write the music I can hear voices in my head I don't want people to think that I
am insane but maybe on some level most composers are but I literally hear the
music in my head and I can write I can write full score without going to the
piano because I can hear what the music is telling me to write and it's what I
tell my students when I'm trying to inspire young composers I use a quote
that I learned from a Jim populist piece which says listen to the sound of my
voice and for that particular piece Jim was talking about a very external
experience but I'm talking about an internal experience I believe that every
single person has the ability to compose whether its words whether it's music or
combination of both we just have to be quiet enough
listen to what the voice is with him and that's where I get inspiration and I've
written many pieces of music on airplanes that way so much so that I've
been tempted to have the publisher put the airport code but beneath the double
bar but I haven't I haven't gone that far