It was quite unusual to use the recorder as a concert instrument. But my mother, a pianist, actually helped me a lot by assuming that anything done on the piano can easily be done on the recorder! She helped me with technique and was just as critical about my playing as she was with her own. I think that has been one of my fortunes.

Each composer has their own language, and I try to meet the challenges, even if at first sight, they appear impossible.

In contemporary music, the challenge for me is to make the recorder sound as naturally expressive as, for example, the violin - without doing it too much and forcing the instrument. It is very easy to be overly expressive on the recorder, and finding the balance is quite difficult.

You need to express things stronger today, more so than in the Baroque time, and you need to expand the expressiveness of the instrument.

Looking for inspiration in expression, I have actually always looked to singers and violinists. I have never really looked only at the recorder as a remedy for my expressions.

It is not very natural to make dynamic changes with the recorder. When you play a long note and want to make a diminuendo, the pitch will fall, and vice versa. So you need to adjust these with your fingers.

When you play the oboe, the flute or other wind instruments, there is something between you and the breath; there is the embouchure, the reed, etc. But with the recorder, I receive an immediate response from the instrument. This is something that attracted me to the instrument, that I could immediately feel the response of what I was doing.