Classical music is a wonderful 1200 year-old tradition that witnesses everything that it has meant and what it means right now to be human.

The big difference between human happiness and sadness? Thirty-seven freakin' vibrations.

Being an American musician means being adventurous.

The first year I started in San Francisco, there was an American work on every program and there's been a lot of music by living composers and gradually that was part of the process of getting the audience really to trust me.

When I was a kid, three years old, I couldn't walk by the piano without reaching up and trying to play a few notes on it. There are kids who are just drawn to listening to music and dancing to it and trying to conduct.

Part of my big message with all this is that if you are alive, you know all you need to know about the message of classical music, because more than any other music, it is about the way life really is.

Extreme volume in music very often disguises a lack of actually important content.