Quotes About Music

To me, my guitar has always been my orchestra.

There is a mysterious way in which orchestras keep a sense of their history and what they've done. I still listen to the L.A. Philharmonic and feel that Giulini was there.

For an artist, there's nothing better than working with an orchestra.

I will never master this craft. Orchestras are very, very forthcoming with me.

In the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra we play such a diversity of music, with 10 arrangers in the band, we don't really worry about whether it's contemporary or not.

Because I don't take money, I'll go anywhere and do a benefit concert with almost any orchestra.

Let me say that I've never thought to conduct because the conductor has to think to the music before the orchestra. And the orchestra comes later. For me, it's terrible.

I've always loved mixing Middle Eastern instruments into a classical orchestra.

My father will go see Trans-Siberian Orchestra every single year. I mean, he's completely into it.

Working in Hollywood for the orchestra world is a very time consuming and laborious job.

You get more nervous in front of a lot of people. That's why, when you play a concerto, you play with a small orchestra, in some place where you don't feel that it is as important as Carnegie Hall.

Music is about communication, and the chemistry between an audience and the orchestra is absolutely essential; the performance does not exist in a bubble.

The better the orchestra, often the harder it is to conduct, not the other way around.

I change the language with which I use my voice. In opera, I know I have an orchestra behind me; I have to communicate to people very far from me.

If the rhythm or beat of the music changes with a live orchestra, you have to think on your feet. If you feel like you are not on your leg, you have to make a decision to make it look as though nothing is going wrong.

It's not all that different with the orchestra. There are orchestras that seem to be encased in dough, so that first you have to break through the normal routine, and clear out the openings.

Next year I'm going to be a guesting soloist with orchestras all over Europe, to start off with.

The first nine albums there was never a Synthesiser, never any Orchestra. There was never any other player except us on the albums.

As long as I can sing halfway decent, I'd rather sing than act. There's nothing like being in good voice, feeling good, having good numbers to do and having a fine orchestra.

So, first you have to be able to play with a metronome. Then you take your freedom. If you play in an orchestra, you got to watch the conductor, he is like a metronome, but it is more difficult because he can change rhythms.

When I want 30 musicians in the orchestra, I get 30.

Why write for the orchestra? For one thing it's a very challenging problem.

Symphonic orchestras have almost become a glut in the market.

Then when I was in grammar school I played the clarinet, and then, after clarinet I played the flute in college orchestra - besides singing in the college chorus and things like that.