In performance, we have a greater purpose. The greater purpose is that we're communing together, and we want this moment to be really special for all of us. Because otherwise, why bother to have come at all? It's not about proving anything. It's about sharing something.

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A Senegalese poet said 'In the end we will conserve only what we love. We love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught.' We must learn about other cultures in order to understand, in order to love, and in order to preserve our common world heritage.

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Classical music is one of the best things that ever happened to mankind. If you get introduced to it in the right way, it becomes your friend for life.

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Our cultural strength has always been derived from our diversity of understanding and experience.

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Each day I move toward that which I do not understand. The result is a continuous accidental learning which constantly shapes my life.

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Passion is one great force that unleashes creativity, because if you're passionate about something, then you're more willing to take risks.

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Good things happen when you meet strangers.

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As you begin to realize that every different type of music, everybody's individual music, has its own rhythm, life, language and heritage, you realize how life changes, and you learn how to be more open and adaptive to what is around us.

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Perfection is not very communicative

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Bach takes you to a very quiet place within yourself, to the inner core, a place where you are calm and at peace.

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