THC: Is this book intended primarily for the audience of your course?

TK: No. The book is not intended to be a textbook. It's intended to be for people who are interested in music. The pieces are pieces that people interested in classical music probably know something about. We are using it as a textbook, but it's not written to be a textbook, and I hope it doesn't look and feel like a textbook.

THC: Were these pieces recognized as masterpieces at their premieres?

TK: I don't think that any of these pieces got their best performance at their premiere. And they've now been performed in many different ways. There are jazz versions of Handel's Messiah, there are Christian Rock versions also. Things become a masterpiece by subsequent people acknowledging them as such. Other things are masterpieces because you can just look or listen and say, "This is a masterpiece." The Rite of Spring was hated at its premiere. But it was still a masterpiece then, in absolute terms.

THC: In your opinion, how does music influence other realms of life?

TK: I study classical music because I love it, but we all know that it occupies an increasingly smaller part of the everyday attention span. I hope that's a temporary thing. I hope it comes back, like natural fibers and vegetarian diets. I'm going to wait it out. I am interested in making people involved in actively engaging music, supporting the presence of music and musicians in their world. Ultimately, I want people to realize how lucky they are to be alive on a planet that has such wonderful music past, present and future.