For me to rehearse with a children's orchestra a Mahler symphony was to really work. We had three or four weeks of rehearsal with the orchestra, every day eight or nine hours, putting the First together. I had been conducting Tchaikovsky a lot and Beethoven, but Mahler was different.

With an orchestra you are building citizens, better citizens for the community.

I think that I need to learn a lot, a lot.

Classical music in Venezuela is now something like a pop concert. You can see people screaming or crying because they don't have a ticket.

I studied music since I was four years old, and from that moment I became part of a family. And that family has taught me things; not only musical things, but things I have to face in life, and that is where the success of the system lies

I wanted to play my violin and have my musical expression through the instrument. But then I was really young when I had my first opportunity to conduct.

My relationship with the Philharmonia Orchestra brought me many times to London and I will always reflect positively on that early period of development with them - their patience, their warmth, their dedication.