Why all the angst?

This just makes me feel sad. I'm sorry Mr. Asia has such a narrow musical ear. I have a feeling he dislikes the minimalist, post-minimalist, and electronic movements as well.

We are all entitled to our opinions. And he is quite allowed to dislike Cage. However, I listened to the entirety of the Sonatas and Interludes yesterday. On loop. For three hours. And was never bored for a minute.

I just hope Mr. Asia doesn't take this extreme approach when teaching students, building up prejudices in students at an early age. Both Stravinsky and Cage are important. As is Schoenberg. And Carter, Reich, John Adams, Tania Leon, Morton Subotnick, Dennis Smalley, Terry Riley, John Corigliano, Rzewksi, Cornelius Cardew, Edgar Varese, Luc Ferrari, Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Boulez, Stockhausen, and many others from various formats. All have had profound effects on music. To discount them because you personally find one piece boring is a disservice.

Doubly so with students. How does he treat that situation? As a teacher, this attitude worries me.

There's tons of music I don't personally like. I find Mozart boring, to this day. I don't particularly like Jonty Harrison's music either. But I force students to study and listen to both, experience both, and come to their own decisions...and then talk about what each composer brings to the table and what can be learned.

I hope Mr. Asia has a much more open ear than he purports here. If he doesn't, I will never been submitting to anything where he is involved, as I know he will dislike my music. And he'll probably get blacklisted by many composers who write music like me anymore. This will lead to very narrow sounding concerts, no better than going to your average orchestra subscription concert. Pity, really, a living composer willing to bury a large segment of music.