Raising a small child as a woman while travelling 10 months out of the year would, I believe, be something I would not be able or even want to do, although with the amazing example of Leila, I am no longer so sure.

Although I do not have a family, I have eyes, ears and imagination, and know, as most people know, that the importance of one's children is paramount.

When you arrive at your destination, pay absolutely no attention to the thing people call jetlag.

Music is art, art is life, and we are who we are, and all of these aforementioned women, unless they should choose not to, will be performing well into the next many decades because they are great artists.

I am very lucky and grateful to have this living link to a past era, the violin presumably having much more history to it than the later portion that I know.

Let me be very honest and just say that if any airline would let me take the violin and the laptop on board I would fly that airline all the time.

I had been playing since I was 2 years old, never remembering a life without music, always playing everything naturally and mostly by ear, and all the grownups wanted were more scales and drudgery out of me.