Civitella Ranieri provides an ideal situation for a creative artist. It allows plenty of time for complete solitude without interruption where an artist can allow his or her ideas the unlimited space they need to develop. At the same time there is the wonderful social aspect of the Center- dinners, day-trips, studio presentations- that enrich the day-to-day life at Civitella and allow friendships to develop that will last long past the residence period.

While at the Civitella I was able to write a substantial portion of a string quartet that I had been trying to deal with for months. The clarity of the time there and the ability to focus was a remarkable gift that allowed me to take the piece as far as I could and still, sort of, make an imminent deadline. The quartet has since gone on to have a nice public life with seventeen performances to date and a recording to follow.