Roger Sessions at 80 My classes at Juilliard were a respite from the uncertainty I felt at work. I especially enjoyed my composition lessons with Roger Sessions though I didn’t have the time to bring in anything substantial. I would try to “buy time” by bringing in something I was orchestrating or something old that I never deemed worthy of bringing to a lesson. This never worked! He would spread his arms all over the music and the sides of his desk left creases on my music. Then a very awkward silence ensued and he would ask me, “No, well I mean….how are things otherwise?” accenting the first syllable of “otherwise”. The implication to me was that things were going terribly with the music I was writing but there must somehow be some happier aspect of my life to serve as a temporary distraction! He was 80 years old now and the Philharmonic was marking that birthday with several performances of his Third Symphony both at Fisher Hall and the Juilliard Theatre. The conductor was Boulez. Sessions was thrilled about this and I felt proud to be playing in the orchestra for these performance
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