It's not cool to start a composer thread asking for advice, I realise, but I find this composer (Andrew Violette, USA, 1953-) intriguing. Basically, he wrote a 3 hour piano sonata (No.7), which on a whim I downloaded expecting it to be new age or improvised/experimental (the composer's biography and marketing - cover art, etc - are very much an attempt to make classical look un-stuffy). It turned out to be perculiarly "normal" - a kalleidoscope of themed sections in a kind of variation form, sometimes quasi-minimal and lyrical, sometimes pleasingly dense and note-y, occasionally completely vulgar (in a good way). While I cannot claim to have given such a long work a proper listen, it's very intriguing and I wonder whether anyone else knows of the composer, or has heard anything else by him?
http://www.youtube.com/v/HJaU8xWEjLg