It all started in Aspen in 1964. My father had died a year and a half earlier, and I felt completely adrift. I was fairly certain I would become an English teacher, but friends and musicians kept urging me to consider conducting. That is how I found myself in the Rockies, studying Barber’s Adagio for Strings with Walter Susskind.

That summer changed everything. The Barber would eventually become one of my signature works, a piece I have performed around the world on occasions of remembrance and other programs calling for its quiet, serene tone.

Somehow, the country has managed to make it through 250 years. I am old enough to remember the bicentennial and all the celebrations that took place. The public was disillusioned with the federal government in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and Watergate scandal. However, the arts were booming, and there was an optimistic feeling in the air. The atmosphere on July 4, 1976 was mostly lovely, with temperatures across the country quite pleasant. Winds were light, and there was a bit of rain on the East Coast.

What a difference 50 years makes! As it turned out, this July offered its own reminder that history, weather, music, and mishaps still know how to arrive together.

If one pattern has defined my life in music, it is movement. I have never been very good at standing still. I have not taken what most people would call a sabbatical, and even my vacations have tended to come in pieces—days borrowed between engagements, or longer trips planned with the hope of disappearing, briefly, into someplace unfamiliar.

June felt unusual from the start. For the first time in a very long while, an entire month stretched before me without a single concert. After seven weeks in Asia at the end of 2025 and another nine in Europe earlier this year, I could no longer pretend that rest was optional. I was tired in the way travel and performance can make one tired—not only in body but in mind and spirit as well.

It is that time of year when concert seasons are winding down, and we take a bit of time to get ready for summer activities. May was one of the most exhilarating months I could have ever imagined, and not all the events were about conducting.

The last two weeks of the very long European tour finally arrived. In Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, I was not quite sure what to expect with a truly difficult program. Since we had six rehearsals, Music Director Karel Mark Chichon and I had decided to really challenge the orchestra.

Seven countries, seven languages, and ten cities. This nine-week European concert tour has been both exhausting and exhilarating.

April came right in the middle of the trip. With Glasgow up first, I was going to see an orchestra I first conducted in 1975. It was an all-French affair with the concertmaster Michael Davis playing Chausson and Ravel. Michael served in the same position when I was Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony in London.