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I've been involved in and out of the U.N. for many years - in fact my first internship was in 1971, so it goes back a couple of years!

Then, in 1983 I went on a very long concert tour all over Europe.

I will prove that a great conducting career is expecting me.

And so, little by little, I gradually divested myself of pretty nearly all of the guest conducting I used to do, because I was at the same time working in the places like the Met, where I could work in this sort of depth.

I had a very strange career. I mean I went from playing to 150,000 people in 1983/84. Three or four years later I was playing to four people, you know, in Melbourne. I thought - bit strange, you know bit odd, bit erratic.

And it was a great experience, you know, to travel the world and compete at a certain level. It teaches you discipline, focus, and certainly keeps you out of trouble.

Before I left for Germany, I had gotten accepted to the performing arts high school in New York, which was a big dream of mine. And having to leave that was very sad for me.

At 17, I signed a recording contract right out of high school, so I started touring and traveling the world. I sort of missed out on the college experience.

My whole career is just terror, from beginning to end. That's kind of my thing. A lot of happy accidents happened.