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I'd forget the piece just before I went out to do the concerto, the panic was too great. This was not anything that gave me pleasure. This was fulfilling somebody else's dream.

There's not an orchestra in the world that doesn't have weaknesses. None of us can play everything well. The repertoire is just too big.

To me, there is nothing like the excitement and unique experience of a live orchestra playing.

My wife Elizabeth and I started The Really Terrible Orchestra for people like us who are pretty hopeless musicians who would like to play in an orchestra. It has been a great success. We give performances; we've become the most famous bad orchestra in the world.

When I first wrote for orchestra, I didn't realize, when you have 20 people playing a violin line, that is very different than one person playing that line.

I will never master this craft. Orchestras are very, very forthcoming with me.

I'm in a position where, theoretically, I could play the same ten concertos and make a very good living bouncing around playing Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Barber, but I really think artists should keep pushing limits and trying new things.

Our first show, 'A Little Nightmare Music,' encompasses a lot of zany humor with beautiful classical music.

I'm one of the boys, no better than the last second violinist. I'm just the lucky one to be standing in the center, telling them how to play.

I hope I will always have the chance to play the violin.