If you're curious, if you have a capacity for wonder, if you're alive, you know all that you need to know [about music].

This extraordinary group has absolutely captivated my imagination, knocked my socks off - what more can I say?

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.

But if I can be convinced and then through the work that we do together, the orchestra can really be convinced of the big sweep of that communication that the piece suggests, then the audience will get it and it will be a good experience for all of us.

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

But without the experience of actually singing or playing these things yourself, you don't have the same kind of involvement or understanding of what these musical moves mean. And that is a very big problem in addressing the future of music.

I think music needs to be presented in a way so that kids can grasp songs, dances, simple music that's associated with some particular defining moment in human experience.