Practicing is not only playing your instrument, either by yourself or rehearsing with others - it also includes imagining yourself practicing. Your brain forms the same neural connections and muscle memory whether you are imagining the task or actually doing it.

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Culture opens our hearts to one another. And the currency in culture is not money, but trust.

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Sharing is a much better way to communicate than proving.

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In performance, we have a greater purpose. The greater purpose is that we're communing together, and we want this moment to be really special for all of us. Because otherwise, why bother to have come at all? It's not about proving anything. It's about sharing something.

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I remember when I was growing up. My great wish was to understand who I was and how I fit in the world.

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I think one of the great things about being a musician is that you never stop learning.

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When your heart and your mind are engaged, you cannot go wrong.

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The worst thing you can do is say to yourself, "I want to be just like somebody else." You have to absorb knowledge from someone else, but ultimately you have to find your own voice.

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Each day I move toward that which I do not understand. The result is a continuous accidental learning which constantly shapes my life.

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A Senegalese poet said 'In the end we will conserve only what we love. We love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught.' We must learn about other cultures in order to understand, in order to love, and in order to preserve our common world heritage.

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