I've done a lot of operas. I've probably done more different kind of operas than anybody.

I started thinking, my gosh, all this sophisticated software for measuring how Yo-Yo plays, and how he moves and this technique of the bow, I should be able to use similar techniques for measuring the way anybody moves, and so somebody who is not a professional or a trained musician, I should be able to make a musical environment for them.

I think part of the bad thing is that skill is emphasized so much that a lot of people, by the time they get to Juilliard, well I think they kind of forget why they got into music in the first place and if they're performers - this is a simplification, but a lot of them are trying to win a competition and play more accurately, or better, or more beautifully, whatever can be measured, than somebody else.

My message is to forget about dichotomies. The Brain Opera is an opera, even if it does not tell a story in the usual way. It is a psychological journey with voices - so I do consider it an opera.

I had grown up and gone to high school in New York, so I wanted to get out of the east coast.

I listen to a lot of music that teenagers are listening to because I'm around them.

There were a lot of things happen in the mid-'80's that all of a sudden made it possible to do a lot of very quick interactive music.