1. What’s the first song you remember hearing?
“Oh What a Beautiful Morning” from Oklahoma

2. Why conduct, instead of play an instrument in the orchestra?
Because when I made my living playing the piano, I struggled. Now that I conduct I don’t struggle, it comes naturally.

3. What makes a good conductor?
Ego

4. What kind of programs do Napa audiences want?
New, adventuresome, colorful and exciting

5. What is your first impulse when you hear a cell phone ring in the middle of a performance?
To laugh … then to plunge the baton into my heart

6. On a scale of one to ten, how bad was the old Lincoln Theater as a place to perform?
Minus three

7. How good will the new Lincoln Theater be when it’s renovated?
A ten

8. Tell us one good thing about performing at the fairgrounds this year.
Being close to the audience

9. If you had to conduct one piece of music every week, what would it be?
There would have to be three: “Pictures at an Exhibition,” “La Bohème” and Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone”

10. Do you have to wear white tie and tails to truly appreciate Wagner?
(Laughs)