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

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.

In Europe, there is so much tradition, and everyone has established ideas as to what art should be and what it has always been.

As we watch TV or films, there are no organic transitions, only edits. The idea of A becoming B, rather than A jumping to B, has become foreign.

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

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

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