Q. Tell us a little about yourself and your music.

I did my studies in Paris Conservatoire of Music, and I learned all the compositions, writing study, orchestration, and also orchestral conducting. I was a pianist first. I started piano quite young. But I evolved into composition, because it was evident for me that what interests me in the music was - or in art in general was the creative part. So when I finished my studies, I worked with Pierre Boulez to learn conducting. Afterwards, I entered into a research center, IRCAM in Paris, and I work in physical acoustics, psychology, and on perception of music. My studies [were] around composition of course, but also around technology.

Q. How would you describe your music?

I am very interested in exploring the color, the timbre [of sound]. What interested me when I was working in technology was to try to open the timbre well and to explore color and sound in a way that could not be done by acoustic instruments. And progressively I also experimented with space because it was evident that, for me, exploring timbre and sound without exploring the way the sound behaved on the stage was a mistake, and it's something I really wanted to do.

What I'm doing now is more coming from timbre and evolving to melody. I started with vertical music, and I have moved progressively towards horizontal music, by which I mean music that is more melodic and mostly influenced by what I always used to love when I was younger, which are the Gregorian songs and technique.

Q. Could you talk a little about the piece you composed for CONTACT!?

The title of this piece is Melodia. It is a sort of a symbol of my evolution, because the first part of the piece starts with noise and color, of course, and progressively evolves to melody. I wanted time to be very continuous. That means it's not about explosions or surprise. The development is a metamorphosis: it goes very slowly from one environment, which is the timbre environment, to another, the melody environment, with all the different transformations you could expect. So it's more a piece on an idea of harmony than a piece on the idea of conflict, which I did when I was younger. [LAUGHS] Probably with age I'm coming more to find a sort of peace.

You know, it's very bizarre: after each performance of my music a lot of people come up to see me, and they always describe to me what they heard. And I can say that, after many years, I've never heard one person in the audience who would say the same as another one. Everyone has his own way to listen.

The only key I would give is to just listen the way each person wants, and to be free to discover some layers or not to discover. I have no message to transmit, and I have no idea or trick to transmit to people. I'm making music for the people to just enjoy, and that is enough for me.

Q. What does CONTACT! mean to you?

I think CONTACT! is a very, very important decision of by Alan Gilbert. And I think it's very, very important for an orchestra to not just be a museum, but also to be part of the culture of today and the repertoire of tomorrow.