Page 285 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book

really: the whole Liverpool team went out to Caracas a few years ago and experienced the
Sistema first-hand!

There are many ways to learn music, but that was the route that worked for me because the
passion grabs you immediately. It’s such a great feeling when you’re excited to go to orchestra to
meet your friends and work with all sorts of different conductors – the demanding one, the nice
one, the angry one…As well as being the best way to develop individually as a musician, it’s just a
lot of fun!

Do you still play the violin yourself?

I play for pleasure less and less these days, because I generally travel without my violin, but I did
get it out in Liverpool to play with the Youth Philharmonic a few months ago and I had so much
fun! My muscle-memory kicks in pretty quickly – double-stops and octaves get more tricky if I
haven’t played for a while, but generally the sensation comes back in about a week. The weird
thing is that my vibrato stays exactly the same, even if I don’t practise!

Finally, how are you settling into Liverpool itself?

I conduct 13 or 14 weeks a season – I didn’t relocate for family reasons, as my kids are in school
and my wife [Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva] is a singer travelling all round the world, but I
honestly feel at home here already. My family visit often, and my son knows Liverpool better
than I do because he goes round all the museums and galleries while I’m rehearsing! I’m a big
sports fan, and of course it’s one of the best cities in the world for football especially: some
people kindly invited me to both stadiums, Anfield and Goodison Park, which was so exciting.

The orchestra and the whole team are extremely friendly, but it goes way beyond that: I’ll be out
and about in town and people stop me and say ‘Oh, you’re the new Philharmonic guy! We were
at your concert the other night!’, and when I check into a hotel or apartment I'm greeted with
'Welcome home!'. Right now I’ve been away for just over a month, and I already miss the place –
that has to be a good sign!