Music from the Inside Out

Musician:
The enduring magic of music is that, for as long as I can remember it has moved me very deeply but I don't know why it moves me.

Musician:
You play a symphony where there are 100+ musicians on stage creating one sound but you are very isolated.

Musician:
I know for myself it's ironic, cause here we are, talking about everything, but I feel, in retrospect, that I respond to music partly because I wasn't very articulate with words. I came from a family that wasn't that comfortable expressing different emotions, and here was a different language that was acceptable and I could really pour all of my feelings into that.

Musician:
I really, really love the feeling of saying something that only I can say. I love taking something and starting off soft, then growing the phrase so that it is like, really expansive. Doing that gives me goose bumps and when I doing it well I am not doing it for anyone else. I am doing it for me.

Musician:
I think that every instrument was created and should, in my humble estimation, be played as close to the beauty of the natural voice as possible. That has influenced me all of my life. I play a phrase, I try to imitate how a singer would breathe, and play that, try to imitate that phrasing.

Musician:
Music making is community. Every musician, even if they are a famous soloist or a famous singer, they play with a band. They play in a chamber group. If they are not communicating with other people musically then they are not having a full life.