Some days, it’s nearly impossible not to despair of ever having my music find an audience. Say I finish the symphony: simple math still says it’ll likely never be played, even likelier never be recorded. (Getting a new symphony played, still less recorded, is very hard.) This is one of those days.

On these days, the thing I do is: remind myself that “little likelihood” (which is not hyperbole but reality) is not the same as “no chance”. And what is the same as “no chance”? Not finishing the work at all. An unfinished symphony definitely won’t get played.

My ethos has always been winning slowly; it’s just that the “slowly” part is sometimes nearly crushing. But “winning” in the ways that matter only happens slowly. So: show up, do the work, keep on.