Anyone who composes and conducts at the same time is immediately suspect, because he must be faking one or the other.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

The philharmonic became such a journey and adventure in my life, and a deeply satisfying thing.