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You lived in the US recently, was that a similar experience to the Danish experience?

I was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 2000 and lived in New York . This was again a significant time for me and allowed me to have a chance to develop my work highly influenced by my surroundings, there is no other place like New York City . I was writing Celestial Pied Piper and my music left behind the great swathes of silence, which is a feature of my work from the 90's. The music became quirky, jazzy, fast and brash- very different!

Education has always been important to you - you've had a lot of opportunities yourself, haven't you? Is that why you have been keen to be involved in providing the same sort of opportunities for other people?

I'm concerned about how music is presented and how it is perceived. It's a very esoteric thing that we do, writing music. I want to get across the idea that it can be immediate and accessible and that anyone can be part of it.

Can we go back to what you were saying about the importance of art to you and the visual element in what you do -you don't actually see all music as colour do you?

Sometimes I do, perhaps not colours- but I think in textures, I will often dream about textures of sound. I think a lot about colour and about shape and my sketchbooks are full of lines that are almost narratives of a line. I have a very particular way of sketching pieces. They are not graphic scores, but they are a way of revealing the story to myself, even if the piece is not a narrative one. It will be about how the music is working.
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© 2005 Deirdre Gribbin
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"To place a new work between these masterpieces was to measure it against giants.

Yet, extraordinary as it may seem, Deirdre Gribbin’s What the Whaleship Saw seemed every bit as mesmerising as the Haydn or Bartok."

Richard Morrison
June 2004 The Times