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.

I realized that the European dogma is not necessarily the only way to look at things.

We need new art. Old art cannot do that. It can do lots of other things, and of course humanity hasn't changed that much in the last thousand or two thousand years.So that the old Greek dramas are still at the very heart, core, of human experience, but still we need new stuff.

Music has just as much to do with movement and body as it does soul and intellect.

Of course performing talent, that's clear. Maybe this is not so well-known among young people who are interested in music, who are talented in music, but they're trying to figure out how to go about it.

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

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