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've learned a lot from the masters of orchestration, like Ravel and Stravinsky.

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

The music I turn out these days is the kind of music I want to hear myself.

You know, in some ways conducting is counter-intuitive. It's like winter driving in Finland - if you skid, the natural reaction is to fight with the wheel and jam on the brakes, which is the quickest way to get killed. What you have to do is let go, and the car will right itself. It's the same when an orchestra loses its ensemble. You have to resist the temptation to semaphore, and let the orchestra find its own way back to the pulse.

I like this idea of identification with the local team. I think it's great. That's what an orchestra should be. It's an orchestra for its hometown, and it serves the people.

There will have to be times when I'm not conducting because I'm composing. I haven't solved that problem, and perhaps I never will.