Limelight catches up with American composer Nico Muhly on his way to Sydney airport.

Next stop: Launceston, in order to commence the role of Resident Artist at the MONA FOMA festival, which opens in Launceston on Friday 17 February and concludes in Hobart 26 February.

“Of the three things I’m doing, two are actually quite straightforward,” Muhly says. “Curated concerts of my work? No problem there. But the other thing I’m doing, A Life Sentence, honestly … That will be quite hard to talk about until I’ve actually done it.”

Nico Muhly. Photo supplied.

Performed in Hobart’s Ian Potter Recital Hall, A Life Sentence will be an interactive choral performance created on the spot. The audience will dictate the program by choosing poems they love or find fascinating. The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Chorus will then perform works in response to those poems.

At the same time, Muhly will prepare a piece inspired by one of those poems, which will them be performed as the show’s closing number.

So, no pressure then?

“It’s the first time I’ve done anything like it,” Muhly admits. “I think it will be fine but right now, I’m honestly...