Ten years ago timpanist Jonathan Haas walked into the offices of Meet the Composer, a grant-funding agency in New York, with, he estimates, 40 pounds of paperwork he had put together over the previous months to solicit funds to commission Philip Glass to write a concerto for timpani. The timpani, also known as the kettledrum, sits in the back of the orchestra and is recognized for those deep,...
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Timpanist Jonathan Haas (left) in the studio with composer Philip Glass. "You know," Glass told Haas when he learned the musician had landed a grant for the composer's commission, "I don't have a thought in my mind what I'm going to write. That's good, right?"