"It’s a tricky balance to respect the knowledge that we have now about the way they supposedly played in those times, and yet be able to express ourselves freely and respectfully."

"The hardest part is the travelling and being far away from the ones you love (children, husband, parents, friends). The best part is being able to touch people with my music and seeing their happy faces after a wonderful concert. I really still believe that music makes people better!"

"The thing that captivates me about conducting is that we have the chance to paint with a huge brush. I also play the violin, which is a much smaller brush. It's music too, it's still me, but the kind of colors you can paint with an orchestra are incredible."

"Mine is not necessarily an instrumental way of thinking. It's not about which note sounds bad and how do you make it better. It's always about the phrase. How does a phrase have to be? And then you make it technically possible to get the phrase the way you want it to be."

"Framed by music, language emerges more clearly, framed by language, music shines deeper. Heart and mind are addressed and revitalized in a beautiful, alternating balance, in short: one gives the other a stage."

"What is fascinating about a string quartet? The fact that there’s no conductor. Watching the four players on stage, you can see the communication, the tension, the pushback and the intimacy. In the age of Facebook and Instagram, when we only seem capable of sharing virtual intimacy, that’s very attractive."

"What I feel is most beautiful, however, is one of these moments in opera when one is completely lonely, when one sheds the tear which one has all by oneself. If then you suceed in having people breathe with you, you're lonely indeed but not by yourself. "

"When I first heard the Grosse Fuge I thought to myself: 'this is insane and impossible to understand from a first hearing, I must listen to it again'. I still think that! "

"When playing in a quartet, one of the most important things is to respect all the individual personalities of each member; they are part of the identity of the group."