Conducting was just something that happened by fluke.

In the range of music that we play - roughly 300 years' worth-there really are more similarities than differences.

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.

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

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.

My music wouldn't sound the way it does if I hadn't had the experience of conducting.

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.