CC: "When I was 17 I traveled to Poland with a youth choir on a U.S. government-sponsored tour. Performing American music throughout Poland was one of the most spiritual experiences I’ve ever had. I saw how the power of music can inspire people and later realized that this is the purpose of being a musician—to inspire people, to encourage people.

The next year, at my first job as assistant conductor of four youth orchestras at the Usdan Center in New York, I remember the sensations I felt the first time I stepped onto the podium to conduct. I knew immediately that I was home. My piano teachers wanted me to concentrate on learning piano repertoire, and I decisively fought them because I wasn’t interested in just becoming another piano virtuoso. I wanted to learn ALL the repertoire: lieder, chamber music, symphonies, operas. I was like a giant sponge. There was this huge universe of music, and I was eager to start taking it in."

CC: “It’s being flexible. Music making is never the same. It’s always changing, and always at the last moment. It’s crucial not to get blown off center when your expectations are destroyed. That’s one thing about life: It’s always changing; it’s never stagnant. And it’s important to recognize that and be ready to adapt to whatever happens as it’s unfolding. How we choose to react is what determines the outcome.”

CC: “I’d have to say Beethoven—for his great spirit of perseverance despite his evolving deafness. He could have given into despair and become an alcoholic like his father. Speaking of fathers…my Dad. I watched him very carefully. He had an incredible ability to remain most calm during times of great stress and upheaval all around him. He accomplished seemingly impossible tasks in what he called his ‘own quiet way, without any fanfare’. And he had a heart of gold. People felt his heart, and reacted in kind.

As for conductors, certainly Toscanini. To start with, his standards and ideals were so incredibly high. He was a perfectionist, and his results were outstanding. That’s a wonderful measuring stick to have.”

CC: “That’s a good question. Yes and no. Some of the most successful American conductors spent literally decades abroad in very important positions without maintaining a music directorship here in the U.S.

The scene is changing though, because there are now American music directors in San Francisco, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Denver, Boston, New York, Buffalo, Atlanta, and Washington D.C. for starters. The notion of: ‘That which is imported must be superior to that which is domestic’ is starting to fade.

CC: “Orchestra boards and managements are very careful about programming. And conductors too, are sensitive to the receptivity of their audiences. It’s a question of education. There’s no reason why audiences anywhere can’t be gently introduced to new music, and fully enjoy it, as it was intended to be.

I’ve done lots of world premieres and first readings. The problem is that as a young conductor, one wants to tackle the great monuments of Western music—Beethoven’s 9th, the Missa Solemnis, Bach’s B minor Mass, Verdi’s Otello. This doesn’t cancel the responsibility to perform newer music, but it’s success is heightened if we create the best timing and conditions for its presentation.”

CC: “Patrons of the arts have traditionally saved countless numbers of arts organizations in this country time and time again. Again, it’s a matter of education. If students go through 12 years of school before college, without instruction in music appreciation, in singing and/or playing in school ensembles or choirs, are not brought to concerts, opera or ballet, if arts organizations don’t come to the schools regularly to share their art with the students, then it would be a foolish expectation to think that they are going to become part of the classical audience when they are adults. It’s up to us. It’s everyone’s responsibility to share great art with young students. Music has a tremendous influence on young people. Many of today’s youth are on a troubled path. We must use the power of music to penetrate the hearts of all people, inspiring hope, courage and confidence for the future.

We have to undergo a huge paradigm shift when it comes to arts education, and not rely on nor expect schools to provide music instruction anymore than we should expect our government to subsidize the arts. Sure, in Europe, governments support cultural institutions in a big way, but this is not Europe. I’m certainly not opposed to government subsidy of the arts, but the reality of the U.S.--irrespective of which party is in office at any given time, or whether taxes are raised or lowered--is that there are lots of very wealthy individuals who have established trusts and foundations to give away money, and huge global corporations that have accumulated incredible piles of cash. And there’s no reason why in the future, through education, that those who control these checkbooks wouldn’t be happy to help make art and music available for everyone. And it will happen. Already many people realize that it’s wrong to just depend on a handful of angels to support one’s arts organization. ”

CC: “Gary Graffman gave an interesting talk at the 2002 annual conference of the American Symphony Orchestra League, in which he stated that in his youth, audiences were mostly grey haired, and continue to be so today, 50 years later! I recently attended a performance in New York City’s Central Park, and was delighted to find a relatively young crowd there. Those with grey hair were certainly in the minority.

It’s not as bleak as it sometimes may seem. For example, there are opera companies all over the U.S. that certainly didn’t exist 30 years ago. There’s a great profusion of summer music festivals in the mountains, in the desert. You now can purchase recordings of the complete works of many composers, which is something you couldn’t do even 20 years ago. There are now videos and DVDs of almost every opera that is performed today. Again, this is a fairly recent development within the last 20 years. Many public libraries have recordings of much of the standard repertoire, and a lot of the more esoteric repertoire. It’s become quite common to create music on a home desktop computer or even a laptop with virtual recording studio software. There is software to be had for hundreds of dollars replacing equipment worth tens of thousands of dollars, making digital music more accessible and easier to compose. So it’s hard to generalize and say: ‘Everything points downward’, because these very positive developments contribute to the current overall reality.”

CC: “This may surprise you, but I celebrate the sounds and colors and styles that differentiate certain orchestras and regions from one another. One has to admire what von Karajan achieved in Berlin, what Levine has built at the Met, and one can truly marvel at the ability of some of the American and English orchestras to practically sight read anything. In one way, as orchestral standards have continually grown higher and higher over the last 100 years, there has been a tendency toward an overall unified homogenized sound. But there’s still something very unique about a Russian orchestra playing Tchaikovsky. It’s definitely a certain sonority that can’t be matched anywhere. In fact, it's an extraordinary, spiritual experience to conduct Russian music with Russian artists for Russian audiences! By the same token, I’ll never forget the first time I heard the Vienna Philharmonic play the 1st movement of Beethoven’s Pastorale Symphony—Now THAT’S a unique individualized sound!

What is sonority? It’s an expression of the players’ hearts. It’s very subjective.

There’s no superior color or style—assuming it’s in tune! Conductors are legendary for creating certain styles of sound. Stokowski was an organist—and was highly interested in color. He’d even ask woodwind players to change reeds to get a different color. Toscanini and Ormandy were string players, and this was a key to their sound. Toscanini, initially a cellist, was constantly admonishing the orchestra to sing, while vibrating over his heart on an imaginary cello fingerboard. Orchestras once played with portamento. That is now considered taboo—but in the ‘20’s and early ‘30’s it was quite common, and very beautiful.”

CC: “Certainly composers such as Bach and Mozart and Beethoven were constantly seeking out and celebrating new, improved, superior instruments that were increasingly stronger and more versatile, and this evolution in the development of instruments has continued beyond their deaths, to the present day. And I see no reason to limit the vast dramatic improvements that continue to be made, just because these composers’ lives happen to have ended!

Certain aspects of articulation and bowing were influenced by the design and limitations of old instruments. It’s a hard call to make: When do we heed the articulation demanded by the instruments of a certain period vis a vis what is inherently found in the music itself?

For example, Leonardo da Vinci designed a fascinating instrument which combined the sonority of string instruments though the use of bow hair touching strings, with the agility advantages of a keyboard, and the sustaining power of an organ through a foot pedal which caused a wheel of bow hair to turn! In Barber’s Adagio for Strings where one wants this very long lyrical line to be unbroken—the last thing you’d want to be aware of is the uniform changing of bow direction by a string section. Here, this instrument of da Vinci’s would be ideal for the task.

Clearly there are advantages to utilizing certain performance practices from each period, and I’m convinced that composers of the past would be ecstatic upon encountering the sound and capabilities of the incredible modern instruments being built today. The wisest outlook is to keep a very open mind. And more important than which instrument or what articulation is being used—is whether the performers are really playing from their hearts. Are they excited about the music? And is the audience thrilled and excited and saddened and moved?”