I don’t know. I have no idea what it takes to make a violin. Maybe it’s just in the way you play it. The other guy, he was a classical player. He was into his music; I wasn’t. He did classical with his violin — he learned the classical parts of the classical pieces. But when I play it with all the harmonies, it’s hard. It’s different.
You’ve had so much success with violin as a solo artist that it seems pretty unlikely that you’ll ever leave the instrument for anything else.
When you look at the big guys like Beethoven — they’d never go back to classical violin. They would never do it again. That’s just the way it is. The best of what I knew about a professional violinist would never make that move again.
I thought a lot about what it would really be like to play a great classical piece, especially a great romantic piece or a really well-crafted piece. And then, as I was playing, thinking about what it would take to get to that point, I didn’t think it was possible for me. A great classical piece is something that I would have to play for the rest of my life; I have to do it all the time.
The people who are willing to do that? You wouldn’t even consider them.
Well, maybe I wouldn’t. But if they wanted to play it, I’d be very happy to play it myself. I don’t care how good I am. It would be great.
Who are some of your favorite music teachers?
[Laughs] I teach with a variety of people — some are teachers, some just like to play with me and they are great, and some are just fantastic.
So you’ll always play?
I would probably never consider anyone else a teacher. I would never consider anyone else as a colleague. At any time where I am interested, I am very happy to play.
There’s been a lot talked about the importance of the classical musician. Is that important to you?
I am passionate about it. My philosophy on life is that it’s like a painting. A painting is just the most beautiful or most elegant thing in the world. If you don’t let it be beautiful — if you force it to be beautiful — then it gets too boring or too mechanical for me. If you allow a painting to be beautiful, then it becomes more real
is it hard to learn violin vibrato first year, best apps to learn piano for kids, is it hard to learn violin kids drawing videos, is it hard to learn violin kids drawing board, beginner violin notes chart