When I was Rostropovich's assistant, he'd take out his cello to play a concerto, and rather than hiring a guest conductor, he would let me conduct. I owe my London debut to him: in 1982 he said to the London Philharmonic (who were probably quite sceptical), ‘I want to play the Dutilleux concerto, and please accept my young assistant to conduct the entire programme.’ He had that kind of influence. He opened doors for me all over the world. It was a thrill to come along and learn and grow.

After my apprenticeship in Washington, it came time to strike out on my own. I got my first music director position with a marvellous regional orchestra in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Many young freelance musicians from the conservatories in New York and Philadelphia got their starts there. Then, in 1985, I became music director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. This was a wonderful adventure - a tremendous chance to grow, especially as we were near the bright spotlight of New York City. If you were creative, you could attract attention from New York, and many world-renowned soloists who lived in New York were happy to tour with us.

I always have, and still do love chamber orchestras. As a student, most of your experience is with chamber orchestras, since you're usually organising things yourself. I could phone friends and say ‘Would you like to play Stravinsky's Pulcinella next week?’ but to put together a Mahler Symphony? Forget it. The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra has 33 musicians. Working there from 1988 to 2000, I was returning to my roots in chamber orchestra literature, and very much enjoyed delving into this neglected repertoire. Teldec noticed what we were doing and wanted to record us. So we were touring, recording, and doing things you couldn't have done with a large orchestra. It was heady stuff: in just eight years we made almost 20 recordings, toured the States for several weeks a year, and went twice each to Europe and Asia. Very few big American orchestras could afford to do all that, but the SPCO did. We filled a niche, as there are few chamber orchestras in the US. America grew with the notion that bigger is better - when symphony orchestras came to America in the mid-19th century, the ambition was: how big can we be? Sadly, there never was a tradition of chamber orchestras in America, and there still isn't.