David Del Tredici — American Composer born on March 16, 1937,

David Del Tredici is an American composer. He has won a Pulitzer Prize, is a former Guggenheim and Woodrow Wilson fellow. Del Tredici is considered a "pioneer" of the Neo-Romantic movement. He has been described by the Los Angeles Times as one of the United States' "most flamboyant outside composers.".. (wikipedia)

Well, American composers are the best composers. At this time in the world, we are where the energy is. We are the most diverse, the most iconoclastic, the most maverick, and the most skillful.
Composers love to write for symphony orchestras because the symphony is the Rolls Royce of musical instruments.
I've always been a composer dependent on texts.
A maverick feels like he has no choice however difficult his choice of expression. In my case, it was going backwards into tonality. It seemed so wrong. The idea that progress is going into the past in a new way is very strange, even though there are precedents.
I began like all composers, writing for small groups. Chamber groups.