I discovered that the people of the North are different and there's no way you can make a person from the North similar to a Southerner. They're two different worlds.

I always felt that one day I would have to make the change in my own life, bite the bullet and see what it is to be a composer who conducts rather than the other way around.

Once you get over the first hill, there is always a new, higher one lurking, of course.

After 30 years I have realized the greatest pleasure I can get is to have learnt.

Our audience, it has been a more difficult process for classical music audiences around the world, and I'm not completely certain why.

I think if you would like to describe composing as an act with one word, "slow" would be the word.

I'm trying to conduct only five months a year, and the rest will be composing time. I'm trying to spend as much as I can out of those months here in L.A., because for creative work, this is a fantastic place.