OK--with so many fabulous works out there, why do I (and many others) have this fixation with needing to spend countless hours finding orchestras and sponsors for new concerti? Sometimes, I think I'm crazy--2600 emails in a file for a project, starting new projects for 2008 and 2010--well, the world better be here to play these pieces. Truly, it would easier to just sit back and wait for the phone to ring to play Rach 3, but there's an instinctive push to do these projects. Perhaps it's a duty to fufill to ensure new works are available for the future--or we just want to hear new voices for today's audiences to hear. I'm now starting a 2008 Lalo Schifrin 3rd Concerto project. Why? Perhaps because we recorded his 2nd Concerto together, and I really like it. I believe Lalo is a masterful writer--echoes of Chopin, Gershwin, and at 73, I'd hate to see him not write another piano concerto during his lifetime. I made the mistake of not commissioning Elmer Bernstein to write one after we had met, and he's passed on now. Certainly, a Schifrin 3rd would be exciting. As for 2010, Adolphus hailstork has embraced my idea of a 'Rhapsody on Spiritual Melodies' for piano and orchestra. And Judith Lang zaimont is also chatting with me about 2007-08 as is Behzad Ranjbaran. Should I panic? Gosh--I haven't even seen the first pages yet to the Lowell Liebermann Third or Richard Danielpour work for piano and percussion for 2006--I must be on Mars to start planning out 2007-08-09-10-11!! But it's a calling, perhaps. How wonderful it would be to have all these new piano concerti for tomorrow's pianists!