I love music passionately. And because I love it I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it.

And why is our music called world music? I think people are being polite. What they want to say is that it's third world music. Like they use to call us under developed countries, now it has changed to developing countries, it's much more polite.

I became a set designer for opera. I'm a great opera buff, I love classical music, and I needed a time-out.

It's a really unfair world because life is, where I am all day long we listen to American music. So I don't see why the radios in the U.S. cannot even put aside one hour a day just to play music that is not American.

There are certain pieces of music that are always attached to certain books.