There is more openness in LA to possibilities than on the East Coast of America. There is a pioneering spirit there that stems from the reason people went out there in the first place-to find something new.

I went to work one morning, and outside my door was Cindy Crawford in a black bra, and I thought that very clearly the building is making progress in integrating itself into various layers of our culture.

I'm composing more than before. I'm cutting down on conducting.

Los Angeles is just a more open place. The way L.A. functions is that people give you a forum. They say, Show us what you can do.

With American orchestras, in particular, because they play in such huge halls, getting a true pianissimo is very hard.

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

I feel that this is my artistic home, and I'm very happy to be a California artist together with many others who are not from here originally but who decided to make this the center of their activities. There's something about that that I find very inspiring and satisfying.