Because if you've got the wit, you can make anything into a melody, ultimately.

The recording industry has changed; they're enjoying such incredible success in the pop field

The first reason for starting to do the symphony concerts was to play this new piece of mine.

I'm fascinated with the electronic devices that we can mess around with.

The Russian composers, especially, tricked the symphony orchestra into the kind of dynamic, rhythmic thing

Actually, it is a fact that I've been doing more writing than playing in recent years.

You start way down on a low B flat on the tuba and you have a chromatic scale; you can match the colours all the way up, till you get to the top of the trumpet.