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.

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

We may be coming to a new golden age of instrument making.

But an innovation, to grow organically from within, has to be based on an intact tradition, so our idea is to bring together musicians who represent all these traditions, in workshops, festivals, and concerts, to see how we can connect with each other in music.

Music is powered by ideas. If you don't have clarity of ideas, you're just communicating sheer sound.

People will ask, 'Are you famous?' And I always answer, 'My mother thinks so.'

I have yet to find something that beats the power of being in love, or the power of music at its most magical.