I have a lot of interests. I daydreamed about various career options growing up; the one I'm in is the first one that worked out, and I love it, so I feel very lucky.

My career direction has probably been guided as much by curiosity and my personality as by my early influences.

The nice thing about the violin repertoire is that it's small enough that you can plan on learning everything at some point - whereas the piano repertoire is so enormous it wouldn't be possible unless you're a learning machine.

When you have a teacher who is part of a tradition, the other people in that tradition are such stars. You just look at them like pop stars.

I grew up in Baltimore.

Deutsche Grammophon really has a grasp of the classical repertoire.

One challenge, if you do a website, a Youtube channel, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Ping, other things like that, is you don't have time to be an artist. As a performer, you need to practice.

With a Grammy, if you're releasing your record with a major label, you have a chance with any record. You also have a very long shot with every record.

When I started my recording career, I hoped that someday the Grammy committee would notice something.

In the performance sense, I find that interpretation is improvisatory in nature. You can go anywhere with an interpretation on any given day.

I'm more creative the more rules I have - note values, tempos, dynamic markings. Somehow, I find that really inspiring.

Whenever I work with people who are nonclassical artists, I kind of get a kick in the pants. I think, 'How can I apply what I do to their music?'

Taking on music that's not played very much is a contribution I can give. There's so much I feel that needs more attention.

Growing up as a classical musician, you're taught a lot about outreach and about how people aren't being taught music in school. But you don't have to study music to like it. And a lot of the music that people like - be it jazz or rock or opera - is stuff they haven't studied.

I like when things happen very quickly, just flash in and flash out. It keeps things interesting.

For vacation, I like going to places I've never been before. I've gone to some remote places, like the Arctic Circle.

I've been to New Zealand several times.

I go a lot to Korea and Japan.

My teacher was still practicing Bach until his death at 89. I have no doubt that if I live that long, I'll be doing the same thing.

I enjoy reading and thinking, and it's hard to make that space as an artist.

I grew up not watching TV and I enjoy TV but it kind of takes my brain away from me.

I try to prioritize a certain amount of quiet work every day.

Most kids are very seriously interested in something - friends, math, shopping, sports. For me it happened to be music and the violin. I had the chance to pursue it without having it get in the way of my life.

That word 'prodigy' has such a derogatory implication. It is used to describe people who are forced to play a lot of concerts very early, people whose audience comes because of their youth, people who are exploited. None of the above really applied to me.