The tradition of classical music and the opera is such that it used to be the place where social intercourse could take place between all parts of society: politicians, industrialists, artists, citizens, etc. That tradition, I think, still exists, but it's much, much more diluted.

When your heart and your mind are engaged, you cannot go wrong.

There's a part of me that's always charging ahead. I'm the curious kid, always going to the edge.

I play an instrument that has four strings, and I'm still trying to get it right. What I've tried to do in the process of playing these four strings is to try and understand the people I meet, the stories they have to tell. And then become an advocate for them and their stories through music.

Nobody else can make the sound you make.

Many of the Central Asians know Russian, and Ted Levin speaks it fluently. I speak Chinese, but Mongolian is completely different, so we had to have translators.

Jazz has been such a force in music, that any musician, including classical composers, have been influenced, and obviously performers, also.