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sandiegoopera OP t1_it8c2qz wrote

Reply to comment by mwkohout in Hi Reddit! I'm a Grammy winning classical composer, composer-in-residence for the Philadelphia Orchestra and I also founded a music academy. In two weeks, the San Diego Opera will premiere my first ever opera, El Ultimo Sueño de Frida y Diego. AMA by sandiegoopera

It sounds like you've already started developing a process -- This is all very detailed!

I admit that my brain works differently when it comes to composing, a kind of "guided/assessed mental improv"... For instance, if you and I were to have a conversation, while we're hopefully connecting and speaking on the same subject, we're also improvising our words. We're not reading from a script, in other words, but coming up with spontaneous responses to one another. Yet, our words are also guided by the subject matter as well as the specifics of language, grammar, etc.

So, in contrast to what you're describing above, I compose more in this vein. It's a pretty perfect marriage of intuition and intellect that seems to work well for me.

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mwkohout t1_it8pkty wrote

So, would you describe this as your mature process?

It might be hard to remember but do you remember your process before it became so personally..intuitive?

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