“You can only learn orchestration if you have the possibility of using ...” — Krzysztof Penderecki Quote

You can only learn orchestration if you have the possibility of using an orchestra.

The isolation of Eastern Europe actually helped me to be so original. I couldn't travel so much, I had to find my own things, such as making the strings sound like electronic music.

Writing music is something very natural... this is the way to communicate with other people.

I don't really think my work breaks into periods. In fact, if you listen to my work in all its so-called periods, what you should hear is continuity.

I started with very tonal 19th-century music because I wanted to be a violinist as a child. So this was my first music, and then I was very much influenced by Stravinsky and Shostakovich in the 1950s. But I was starting to develop my own style.

I have sat in with the Burbank Philharmonic and the Topanga Orchestra when they need someone if someone gets sick or something.

No technology comes close to the effect of a live symphony orchestra.

If anything, when I was young, I wanted to be an orchestra.

Ergo, because of the money problem, it is probable that our orchestras will soon go down in quality.

What a gift it would be if every child in the country could hear a professional orchestra at least once.