My Gurus – Douglas Knehans

Lutosławski

I was lucky enough to meet and talk with Polish composer Witold Lutosławski when he visited Melbourne, Australia when I was a young composer. The vividness of his orchestral scores and the immediacy of his communication through music has always been tremendously impressive to me as an artist. I was lucky enough to hear the Australian premiere of him conducting his 3rd Symphony and to meet and socialize with him afterwards. Urbane, deeply human, tremendously kind and unpretentiously sophisticated, he and his brilliantly intense music have been one of my gurus for my entire career.