What's it like to be Fergal Dowling?

1. How and when did you get interested in composing?

From an early age I played music with my father, became involved in rock bands, then classical guitar, and ultimately formal musical education. But, as long as I remember, I always wrote music.

2. Is composing your 'day job' or do you do something else as well?

I compose from 9.00am to 5.00pm.

3. Where do you mostly get your ideas?

I work with computers a lot during composition so many of my initial ideas are formal, or else derived from the available instrumental forces.

4. What are you working on at the moment?

I am completing a piece for the EAR Ensemble for their concert at theNational Concert Hall in November 2006. It will be for eight musicians (flute, clarinet, sax, piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass) and live electronics, and will use custom software.

5. Describe your typical working day.

I try to spend the morning composing. In the afternoon I read technical papers, practice guitar and listen to recordings. But email and administration work (sending scores and CDs), not to mention family business, tends to invade my time.

6. What is it like hearing a new piece played for the first time?

When hearing a new piece being performed I find myself too busy making mental notes of compositional and performance issues to be involved emotionally in the experience.

7. What has been the highlight of your career so far?

I can't pick one moment, it's all just work I enjoy doing.

8. What has been the lowlight of your career so far?

I can't pick one moment, it's all just work I enjoy doing.

9. What is your greatest ambition?

Again, there is no single event that would make my professional life better. If I can continue working as a composer, that's fine.

10. Which musician in history do you most admire and why?

My father. He was not a great musician, but he would have a go at playing any instrument. He played for his own enjoyment and the pleasure of others without any pretence or ambition.

11. Which present-day musician do you most admire and why?

Stockhausen, Karlheinz Essl, Peter Ablinger; they are all very clear thinkers.

12. Which period of history would you most like to have lived in and why?

The next century is going to be very exciting -- many of the issues raised by electronic music have yet to be fully appreciated and worked out.

13. What is the best thing about being a composer?

I have had the chance to travel and meet many inspiring people.

14. What is the worst thing about being a composer?

Self doubt.

15. If you weren't a composer, what other career might you have chosen?

I would love to get involved in transport management, and may well do in the future. I would also love to be a gardener.

16. What is your concept of heaven?

Listening to my kids playing music together.

17. What is your concept of hell?

Television.

18. What is your favourite food?

All things French.

19. If someone gave you three months off with unlimited travel and living expenses, what would you do?

Send everyone else away.

20. If you could have one thing in the world that would really help you as a composer, what would it be?

A shorter distance from the keyboard to the writing desk to get my musical ideas down even faster.