The act of conducting in itself, of waving my arms in the air and being in charge, I didn't miss. I missed the sensual pleasure of being in contact with music.

Somehow, conductor as this superhuman conduit between the masters and the masterpieces and the immortals.

I think we are in the process of getting the word out, and we haven't done very well yet. But we are trying.

The underlying process in Northern music tends to be slower and continuous, whatever's happening on the surface; in Southern music the underlying process is always faster.

This country, and the West Coast, especially, is bad at preserving any cultural legacy.

I feel very free and very happy to be a composer.

I actually don't like this term, "classic." It's wrong, but we don't have a better word at the moment.