Nadia Boulanger

A decade or so ago a Taiwanese student insisted that he would move to Cologne to study composition with me. In the process of convincing him of the ludicrousness of the idea he said that his main reason was that he had read that I studied with Nadia Boulanger. I did not study with Nadia Boulanger.

shared the stage with AACM members

A profile of me for Jazziz magazine said that as a youth I shared the stage with members of the AACM. In the sense that my band got off the stage just before AACM members got on it, sure, true. But in the common usage of “on the stage together,” that never happened.

founder of the AACM

stephen dembski

where I toil

work as a music professor

A critic wrote that I was one of the founders of the AACM. Fortunately, a fact checker called me before the story went to press. I told him that the AACM wasn’t founded by Jewish children.

It has been written that I studied composition with Stephen Dembski. Although Stephen conducted five of my CDs and wrote the music for one of them, I did not study with him.

It has been written that “I toil in obscurity in Madison, Wisconsin,” and that I have lived in Austria for more than 30 years. For the last two decades plus change my obscure toiling has taken place in Cologne, Germany.

I have never been a music professor