Although we are being presented in Carnegie Hall, we have to furnish a budget for our guest stars, and for the music writing - which is a huge budget in any orchestra that plays popular music.
And then I went into television; and then television moved from the East Coast to Hollywood.
But I listen to everything, I listen to all artists that come along.
Do, What you're going to do in longevity. Not just what happens tomorrow.
Film scores have now become much more a part of the business, using the theme from Titanic as the best example.
I also work with the regular orchestras in Munich, Germany and other similar orchestras.
I also worked with many opera people, such as Robert Merrill, Roberta Peters, Dorothy Kiersten, Lucina Mao.
I do a great deal of guest conduction, working with orchestras all over the world.
I don't listen to rap simply because I don't think that relates. That's a rhythmic content, and I can understand that the young people enjoy it.
I grew up on film scores and scores from films.
I had had a classical education prior to that.
I listen to everything.
I recorded with Sinatra, but the recording business is a very strange strata right now.
I started off as a studio pianist in Hollywood.
I think my favorite experience is whatever I'm doing now.
I worked with practically everybody in the business in all of the years in NBC, but I worked personally many years with people like Crosby and Sinatra, so of course that was a great ground school for me.
I've watched the demise of the Hollywood orchestra, the house orchestras of the big studios.
I've worked with the Oslo Philharmonic, the Swedish Opera, and the Stockholm Opera.
If you don't operate it as a business, you aren't going to be around very long.
In a way, yes, because I was starting something fresh, and it was something totally independent.
Symphonic orchestras have almost become a glut in the market.
That was probably the stamp that went into my mind, because I worked in television for many years, doing that kind of music, so that really was my strong forte.
That's why I enjoy the New York Pops. It has my very own musical stamp and the stamp of experience I've had over the years.
Then I went to radio with Sinatra and I watched that disappear.
We do a lot of light classical programming with that, too... obviously... a lot of Tchaikovsky music, Grieg, things like that which have become less classical with classical concerts.
We have train wrecks, as we say, all the time. I've had a project in Switzerland where the artist just changed at the last minute.
We try to say it's creative and in a manner it is creative, but it is a business, because today, with the cost factor in crossing the boundaries that you do.
Well, I worked with lots of different artists, of course.
Well, in our business, it's a very tough profession.
While there used to be one or two Pops orchestras, now there are all kinds of European orchestras that suddenly look upon this as a golden wand that can enable them to make money recording this music.
You're lucky if you keep working.
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