I went to church and couldn't swallow it. The music was nice but I don't belong there.
I have to have music on when writing, or else the silence swallows me whole.
Since the big band started I'm just always swamped with movies and things. It certainly pays the bills and it's very satisfying, because I get to write all these big charts and all this crazy music.
I think there's nothing better than seeing a three-chord straight up rock 'n' roll band in your face with sweaty music and three minute good songs.
I've got fans and letters from Israel, France Germany, Sweden, London, Africa. They all saying pretty much the same thing, 'Yo, we love you, we need you, put some more music out, please!'
The aggressive side of me comes across in my music, but I'm just a sweet girl.
I grew up a competitive swimmer. I wanted to go the Olympics. Both my parents were professional swimmers. I competed internationally quite often, right up until I moved to California to pursue music.
What really swings is the music of the United States, Cuba, the Caribbean and vicinity, and, of course, Brazil. The rest is all waltzes.
I turned popular music on the radio, and I never listened to it again after that, in about 1985. That's when I switched over to classical music, and I pretty much stayed with that since then.
My music is simple stuff. Anybody can sit down, look at a set of symbols and produce sounds the music represents.
I don't know if it's a sign of all the chaos that is happening out there or not, but I've lately craved the structure and order of classical music, the balance and symmetry.
In concertos, I stand up, and I conduct with the bow when I'm not playing. During symphonies, I sit, but sometimes I stop playing to conduct. Being seated in a section allows me to feel more like we're playing chamber music, which is how I like to approach it.
I started directing chamber orchestras, then adding bigger pieces, adding winds, adding small symphonies. I've always loved chamber music, and I've done a lot.
If a professional musician in a symphony orchestra is playing Beethoven. But this particular orchestra have played this particular chestnut so many times, they can play it in their sleep. Does the genius remain present in the music or not?
Music is such an important part of society, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra offers such great quality, and we just want to share it.
I admire Tom Ades: he's a brilliant conductor, and he gets just the right hard, brilliant sound from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra for Russian music.
We made music that wouldn't be in synch.
Most music that you hear is in synch with itself. We were experimenting with the music falling out of synch with itself and even though it is out of synch you mind can still understand what it is meant to be doing.
As a music industry, if we remain in competition, then we die. We have to understand that we're all in this together. Collaboration and synergy, it's one of the most important things out there.
There were so many people after that first 'Colbert Report' interview that were impressed by the synergy we had during the interview. People everywhere we'd go would say, 'You should be the bandleader; it would be great for jazz. It would be great for the music.' But I was completely against it.
