To this day, I still travel with scores. Every time I'm on a plane - it could be Stravinsky or Mozart or Ravel.
I was always drawn to Broadway musicals, and obviously composers like Gershwin, Rodgers, Berlin and Porter were writing music that I found wildly impressive.
Musically, I'm a huge fan of Stephen Sondheim, and I love, love 'Sweeney Todd.'
Our music over the years has been very cinematic. It's surprising we never really got into film soundtracks.
I was influenced when I was younger by the cartoon movies that Disney put out, like Cinderella and what not. I watched those movies over and over when I was younger and the music is ingrained into my head. Nowadays, I'm still humming the tunes. It taught me the fundamentals.
I think that purists may regard the '80s and Jerry Goldsmith being the quintessential example of film scoring, but that was also a very prominent type during a time when soundtracks were purely songs, and there was very little score.
I grew up singing since the age of three. Vocally trained since the age of eight. Fascinated by Mary Poppins and all those musical movies and really knew that I wanted to be a performer.
I love hip-hop; I love Sleigh Bells. I also love classical music and musical theater.
There are no large-scale original musicals being made right now. They're all Broadway adaptations and jukebox musicals or catalog musicals, and they just don't interest me as much.
Tom Kitt aside - he's in his own category with me, of course - Stephen Sondheim is one of my all-time favorite composers.
My first album, 'Englaborn,' was based on music originally written for the theatre. My solo albums, like 'IBM 1401, a User's Manual' and 'Fordlandia,' have also had narratives attached to them.
I've been very fortunate as a composer to be involved with projects that have really propelled my scores forward. I'm very proud of it.
I don't think I've got the stuff that Broadway musicals are made of. But there are definitely many musicals that I enjoy. 'Hair' and 'Rent' might be my favorites.
I'm a self-taught musician so how I read music is kind of very weak and I kind of read my own version of tablature, I write my own crappy reminders on what I'm playing.
But I think musicals are going to have to deal with important subjects.
I thought 'Moulin Rouge' was inspirational, and 'Jesus Christ Superstar' I loved.
I adore the work of Stephen Sondheim. I like musicales in general. They make surprisingly great running tapes.
Most of the music I've listened to or grew up listening to - a lot of it at least - is instrumental stuff.
The musicals on Broadway have not necessarily been true musical theater. I'm speaking generally, of course: I saw 'Spring Awakening,' and I was completely inspired by that.
I have completed 21 years of composing music in Indian films.
Musicals are famous for being in a constant state of flux.
It could have been extremely boring to write musical scores for only westerns of horror films. It was really exciting for me to work in all these various genres.
My parents had a lot of movie soundtracks that they brought back from the States. So very early on I heard film music at home.
A large part of my work has been collaborating with composers; I think we've commissioned about 140 pieces now, a lot of them percussion concertos.
The first time I came to New York in 1952, I was busy with music. I made the acquaintance at this period with John Cage, and also the acquaintance of Varese for the first time. We were very good friends. He gave me some scores, and we recorded them a little later.
