"There are no two points so distant from one another that they cannot be connected by a single straight line -- and an infinite number of curves."
Composer Lawrence Dillon has produced an extensive body of work, from brief solo pieces to a full-length opera. Partially deaf from birth, Dillon grew up in a bustling household with seven older siblings. He began composing as soon as he started piano lessons at the age of seven. In 1985, he became the youngest composer to earn a doctorate at The Juilliard School, and was shortly thereafter appointed to the Juilliard faculty. Dillon is now Composer in Residence at the North Carolina School of the Arts, where he has served as Music Director of the Contemporary Ensemble, Assistant Dean of Performance and Dean of the School of Music.
Dillon's music, in the words of American Record Guide, is "lovely...austere...vivid and impressive." His works are recorded by Albany Records, Channel Crossings and CRS, and published by American Composers Editions. He is represented by Jeffrey James Arts Consulting.
• pieces that you love and respect • pieces that you respect but don’t love • pieces that you love but don’t respect • pieces that you neither love nor respect
I’m teaching a course on 20th-century string quartets this year, so my lists are very narrowly focused – 1900-1975 string quartets:
Love and respect: Ravel, Webern Six Bagatelles, Bartok first and fourth, Shostakovich eighth, Carter second, Scelsi fourth
Respect but don’t love: Schoenberg second, Berg Lyric Suite, Bartok third, Crumb Black Angels, Dutilleux Ainsi le nuit
Love but don’t respect: I don’t really understand this category. What is love without respect?*
Neither love nor respect: Schoenberg first, Bartok second, Barber op. 11, Carter third
Of course, the categories I put these pieces in have shifted over the years, and I expect them to shift further. And then there are the vast majority of quartets I don't know where to place.
*Well, I suppose that all of my quartets could fall into this category – simply because I love them unconditionally while feeling their faults keenly. On the other had, only one of my quartets is from the 20th century, so they don't count.