I'll never forget the first time I heard Johann Sebastian Bach's 'Partita in E Major' for violin. It was in a late-1980s television commercial, of all things. As a young violinist at the time, it enchanted me - it was so pure, precise, and unadorned.
I think I've been lucky to work with so many lovely people. But there's Joshua Bell, who's the world's greatest violinist. We worked together live and once, for his record, but I really would want to work with him on one of my records.
David Harrington, who's the violinist and founder of Kronos, is a super open-minded and adventurous guy.
I was always jealous of my violinist friends and cellist friends who traveled with their instruments.
I actually played violin on 'E.T.' I used to be a violinist.
I had no interest or intention of ever writing music. I was a professional violinist in my 20s. I was obsessed with conducting, and I was conducting as much as I could, and I was studying as much as I could. I went to USC; I got an undergrad degree in violin and a master's degree in conducting.
I was trained by Method acting teachers and we were taught that aside from whatever gift you may or may not have or the level of that gift, that you were obliged to know how to build a table. It's a craft. It's like being a ballerina or a violinist.
I'm one of the boys, no better than the last second violinist. I'm just the lucky one to be standing in the center, telling them how to play.
At the end of '69 I did a gig with Jean Luc Ponty here in L.A. He was an electric violinist.
Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.
