Though I played classical piano since age 5 and sang in a cappella groups, being an artist didn’t seem like something I was talented enough to do full time. So I kind of buried that dream.
When working with classical musicians, it is important to be clear as possible in the score about what my intentions are. Because there isn’t a lot of rehearsal time, especially at the ballet, it’s best if everything is written in the score.
It’s really funny how I’ve come round to classical music around the back door with my banjo in my hand, and I love it.
The clever, albeit fragile, coalition against terrorism brought together by the U.S. government might be able to advance the transition from classical international law to a cosmopolitan order.
We need to bring music to the people, even to those who normally do not listen to classical music.
Right out of school, I did this show called ‘Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.’ It is based on a classical text with new music – not necessarily confined by a certain genre. It was a diverse, interesting group of musicians, actors, nonactors, and singers all creating this thing that is bigger than all of us.
I don’t think I’m good enough to bring alive the character of my mother, even if it is on screen. Besides, my mother was a classical dancer, and I am very bad at it.
I enjoy bluegrass, folk, gospel, and classical. I don’t listen to music when I write. I sometimes listen to music just before I sit down to write.
I do like classical music, and soft rock, and jazz, which I never listened to when I was 15. Now I like it. The older you get, the more tolerant you get, right?
Jon Anderson and I, we really liked a lot of classical music, and we wanted to get some orchestral arrangements going on ‘Time And A Word.’
I went to the University/Resident Theatre Association auditions. Deans come and watch you in this theater. You have three minutes, and you have to do two contrasting monologues – at that time, this is 2003 – one classical and one contemporary.
I’m a fan of many different styles of classical and symphonic music.
I was brought up by my mother, and she is my guru in classical singing. I have trained primarily under her.
My mom had this romantic notion of her children playing classical music. The idea is you learn it when you’re still learning language. It’s using the same part of the brain.
Even back when I played ‘straight-ahead,’ I mixed it up. I played some free-form, classical adaptations, solo flute stuff. It was New Age in its own way.
If you ever ask me what my all-time dream character is, my answer will be Mia Tansen, the great composer-musician in Hindustani classical music. And ideally, the film should be directed by a person like Bhansali who is a great director and has a marvellous sense of classical music.
For many years, I’ve always been attached to what they call the Great American Songbook, and Kern was a great leader of that because he had the classical training of Europe. He impressed all the greatest composers, like Cole Porter and Gershwin. They couldn’t believe he was writing the songs he was writing.
I trained as a classical guitarist but that was it.
I studied classical percussion for ten years.
If someone is a straight jazzhead, or a straight metalhead, or straight classical, they have a very narrow range of what they allow into their lives. But the people who listen to what we put out into the world have to be open-minded. Because we’re so pluralist.
