Vivian's Composer Profile on Musica Kaleidoskopea

Musica Kaleidoskopea recently published Vivian's Composer Profile including a short interview with Vivian herself!Would you mind speaking a little concerning your working process, i.e., do you have a regular schedule for writing; do you use a computer for composing (either for creating pre-composition materials or notation), if so, do you find that it inhibits your process? What other technology, if any, do you use? "I write in spurts, almost every day for a few concentrated months, then nothing for the days and weeks I have to travel for rehearsals and performances. As with a lot of things, deadlines often determine the cutoff points to compositions. I start with sketchbooks, good old pencil and paper, often by the piano. I start inputting notes into Sibelius (my preferred music notation software) towards the end of first or even second drafts, not before, and then fine tune and do final tweaking directly on Sibelius.I like to think architecturally, so I sketch the broader parameters of the work at the outset. As things start to get more in focus, I start to think more locally. I often compare my process to being in an airplane, where you start from 35,000 feet and you get a sense of the big picture but the details below are remote and far away, but as the plane starts to descend, things start to get more in focus, and then at the end stage, it is all about the details.I’d like to explore Logic software more – I have used it in the past, but most of my recent and upcoming commissions are for orchestras or strictly acoustic instruments. However, when the time is right, I will definitely do more experimenting with that."See the full profile here.