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

The English learned, in my view, how to use harmony much earlier than the French or the Italians, or the Germans.

One of my interests in music has always been what it means, why it affects us the way it does.

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

I'd studied piano first and switched over to cello when I was about seven. I played mostly chamber and solo classical music. I got really involved with rock music when I was a teenager. I wired up my cello.

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

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.