Every orchestra I know, every opera house I know, is desperately looking around trying to find new talent, new composing talent, supporting young composers, supporting new ideas, supporting new ways of getting the message across.

Once you get over the first hill, there is always a new, higher one lurking, of course.

After 30 years I have realized the greatest pleasure I can get is to have learnt.

I was starting a group of musicians and we had a group of young composers in Finland back in the '70s, and the real conductors, the professional conductors at the time were not interested in our stuff.

It would be very tempting to say that why paint because we have Michelangelo, we have Leonardo [Da Vinci], we have all these guys. Why waste your time, because most likely you're not going to be on that level anyway.

Stravinsky is masterly: his harmony is conceived so precisely that it can only be the way it is.

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