BD: When you get the piece done and you’ve turned it over — not necessarily the rights, but the performance — to an ensemble or an orchestra or conductor...
AJK: [Interjecting] Well, that comes early on, really.
BD: ...are you expecting them to put anything of themselves into it, or do you want them to perform it exactly as you have notated?
AJK: Well! Of course I hope that they’ll put as much of themselves as they can with their energy and their enthusiasm, but I do believe that first performances should, to the best of intentions, reflect pretty carefully what’s in the score so that the composer can then compare what works and what doesn’t. I’ve had some experiences, in the last few years especially, where the first performances were very, very different than what my intentions were. With one piece that was just revised and re-premiered a few months ago, I had to wait about two or three years to really hear it as I wanted to.
BD: Is there ever a chance that some of these things which are even quite a bit away from what you intended might turn out to be better?
AJK: Oh absolutely, and sometimes they do. But if I don’t have a chance to hear what mistakes I’ve really made or what things really work exactly as I’d intended them to, hearing some kind of other version of a brand new piece helps with neither.
BD: Have you basically, though, been pleased with the performances you’ve heard of your works over the years?
AJK: It’s getting better and better, the more time there is and the better the materials that the performers perform from. That’s made a huge difference. But yeah, in the last two years I’ve written some big pieces where there were a few situations where the intention of the conductor and my intention were in conflict.
BD: If a conductor really miss-shapes your piece, would you then turn down an offer that he or she would have, to do another of your pieces, or to do that piece again?
AJK: Well, if they ask, hope springs eternal. [Both laugh] The next piece that they do they would have maybe a better feeling for. I want them to enjoy my piece, and in a way, if they were performing another piece — an older piece — I’d feel less uncomfortable because there would be probably an existing model. So if the new performance deviated from that, I’m usually more comfortable by the time I get to a few other performances. I like to see how a piece evolves from conductor to conductor, provided that the first performance reflects my intentions.
BD: Get the first one right and then move from there?
AJK: Yeah.
BD: But then it can move quite a distance from there?
AJK: Well, hopefully by that point, by the third or fourth performance at the latest — hopefully by the second — I’ll have fixed what I’ve needed to. I’ll have adjusted the tempi, ‘til they’re really workable and do-able.
BD: Is any of this because we’re learning you from piece to piece and are getting closer to you because we understand your history?
AJK: That’s a lovely thought; it really is. There are a few conductors that I’ve worked with who have done a number of pieces, who have a good sense of the different things I’ve done and how they interrelate, and know where to take very seriously what I’ve put down and know where to kind of fudge it a little bit and play with it a little bit. But those are very few. Many conductors or organizations are doing something for the first time, and they don’t know my history; they just have decided to do a piece.
BD: But you’re represented more and more on recordings...
AJK: That’s true.
BD: ...and several of their friends have done your pieces, so that you have a little bit of reputation.
AJK: That helps.
BD: I’ve asked about performances. Are you pleased with the recordings that are out? They have a little more universality.
AJK: Very pleased! I’m very pleased with the recordings that have come out, and I’m only sorry that there aren’t more. There are quite a few, but with the kind of near-collapse of the recording industry, the first thing to go were any of the major recording labels recording new music, and particularly American new music. At least in Europe they could afford to pay those ensembles, but here it’s been harder. I was very fortunate; I had a very wonderful situation with Argo label, which, you know, did wonderful things for five or seven years, and then has stopped.
BD: Are there some more recordings coming along?
AJK: At this point there are a few chamber things that are in the pipeline, but I don’t know when they’re going to come to fruition. In the orchestra world I just don’t know where the next recordings are going to come from, and that’s very frustrating to me because I write a lot of orchestra music.
BD: Do you want to be known as an orchestra composer?
AJK: I think just as a composer. I really enjoy all the different mediums. I feel very at home with vocal music and with chamber music and orchestra music.
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BD: Tell me the joys and sorrows of writing for the human voice.
AJK: Oh, I just love it! It’s really my first love because I was a choral singer even before I was a lousy violinist, so I don’t really consider that much of anything. But my first pieces were choral songs, so I really brought that kind of love of vocal music into my work, in general. There I’ve had pretty consistently very, very good experiences.
BD: Is that why you’re eager to get into the opera?
AJK: I’ve been wanting to write an opera for a long time, and it feels like a good time. It definitely feels good. I have a good subject and a good situation.
BD: Is it good that you also have a performance date lined up?
AJK: Yeah, yeah. It hems me in a little bit, but I think in three years I ought to be able to pull it off.
BD: You’ll know in a year and a half whether you’re going to be able to make it?
AJK: I’ll have to make it!