{ Origins }

"I couldn’t speak English at first but through playing the cello, I discovered how much music was a form of expression and communication."

– Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir

"With me becoming Gstaad Festival’s artistic director this year, it feels like something has come full circle."

– Daniel Hope

"These pieces that are born out of an intensity of experience, or a lack of stability and all that entails. I think it's not necessarily bad for art, right? It's bad for us. But that's it."

– Sean Shepherd

"The idea that you can, without force, guide a room of people towards a certain direction. This is now what I spend a career trying to learn."

– Edward Gardner

"You read about people finding their roots, finding their second home. There's no explanation for it, but I felt like Cuba was my place. Cuban music gets under my skin and into my veins like no other music."

– Sarah Willis

"I try and make one statement during a performance and that's not so easy because there’ll always be different things in the piece you’d like to highlight, but if I can make one very clear statement that’s more likely to stay with an audience."

– Inmo Yang

"In a more abstract way, I do feel like every instrument is its own sonic world. I have very vivid associations with colors. I’m not synesthetic, but I do color code my sessions when I’m composing."

– Angélica Negrón

"As a 10-year-old, knowing what it takes to be great at something is a very, very valuable lesson, even though it came at a pretty high cost."

– Teddy Abrams