This is a subject which continues to trouble me. Having taken my artistic responsibility to society seriously, I have endeavoured to, upon occasion, produce works which I believed had an appropriate "message." However, I am discovering that no one wants to listen to music with a "message," as it might be too "depressing." One of my works is a woodwind quintet written in response to the bloodbath in Croatia in the early 90s. Commissioned by the New Music Across America Festival, Elegy for the Children of Sarajevo was well received, yet it has been impossible thus far to secure another performance of the work.

Although it made the next to final cut in a national composition contest, and response from potential performers has continued to be enthusiastic, there is a prevailing attitude that audiences will not sit still for, nor pay to listen to, a piece which is not designed merely to "entertain." If this is actually true, where are the concert hall audiences of tomorrow?

Entertainment has its place; certainly many of my works are written for entertainment purposes. Entertainment is a legitimate and valid goal in itself. But I believe that an artist in any field is in a singular place in which he can use his talents to make a positive contribution to society. Music and poetry, in the realms of both art and folk culture, have been used to make valid statements throughout the millennia. However the artist now finds himself living in an era in which he is told no one will listen to a "message" or "statement." I simply do not believe this to be true.