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Which were your major influences in classical music?
Wow! I love all classical music, but I would say my biggest influences were Brahms, Chopin, Stravinsky, Ravel, and many of the contemporary composers such as Ligeti, Scelsi, and of course Bach! – I play the Bach cello suites almost every day!
Would you rather to work as a solo artist or working with artists Pop/Rock?
I love both my solo tours and working with contemporary artists. I have made a choice in my career to only collaborate with Artist’s whose material I really feel I connect to – Amy Lee, Philip Phillips, Michael Brecker – I feel my own playing grows a lot from my work with these artists whom I respect so much – and it helps my own solo work have more dimension and expression.
Tell us about one striking presentation in your career.
We just did an amazing show for PBS in America called Bluegrass Underground – It is filmed in a cave in the Cumberland Caverns in Tennessee 334 feet below ground – It will be airing on PBS soon – it was such a magical and beautiful environment to play!
You also helped compose the soundtrack of the film ‘War Story’ (with Amy), had already done something similar? How was carry out this work?
War Story was the first film score Amy and I worked on together, though I have played music with Amy since 2006. It was an amazing process. We got to create some very unique and experimental sound scapes – It was really fun for us all to move outside out comfort zone and create more experimental sound scapes to compliment this amazing film.