When I moved to New York City in 1979, I went to hear Steve’s ensemble perform Music for 18 Musicians. It hit me with a ferocity equal to that of all the exciting rock-based music being made—from Television to Glenn Branca to DNA. At that time in New York there was a heightened sense of interplay and inspiration, a conspiratorial excitement in the air about the many new directions ‘modern music’ was taking (whether for 18 musicians, sine waves, or electric guitar orchestras). It appeared for a brief time that the worlds of ‘high’ and ‘low’ were not that far apart.