“There’s certainly some anger in there,” says Ted Hearne, sitting back with a thoughtful grin and contemplating his 25-year-old self. Now one of America’s most in-demand composers, Hearne and I have grabbed half an hour between rehearsals in Miami where his latest commission is about to premiere at New World Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas’s prestigious state-of-the-art academy for graduate musicians. Integrated with documentary footage, Miami in Movements incorporates crowdsourced sound and video chosen from hundreds of uploads submitted by Miami residents. Questioning, celebratory, coolly eclectic, it deserves to be seen in Australia. Meanwhile, another work that thrives on primary-source texts, Katrina Ballads, (receiving its welcome Australian premiere in Freemantle as part of this year’s Perth International Arts Festival) is a more than ample substitute.

At 35, Hearne is not exactly about to start drawing his super, but in the decade since his seminal Katrina Ballads took the classical music world by storm – if you’ll pardon the pun – the Chicago-born composer, who has also been known to sing from time to time, has had opportunity to reflect on what it is that drives and defines his craft.

Hearne’s oratorio, a response to the...