Alexandros Kalogeras

"I believe that if one person teaches, two learn. Above all, teaching is a very creative endeavor. You have in front of you people's minds, which are the most difficult thing to shape and develop. You can never use exactly the same technique with all kinds of students. And so you have to have constant discovery of new teaching approaches."

"I'm absolutely still learning because things are changing so fast. There's more information, more research, and always more to learn in what we know. Plus there are so many other things that we don't know, so the best thing to teach somebody is to welcome the unknown. It's a very creative endeavor to open up minds to new experiences and not stay with the familiar. Doing this, I get to know my class and myself better as human beings, and I get to know music better. You learn because you teach."

"Music has a lot to do with economy: reusing, recycling, giving new faces to older materials. Music is built out of blocks; nothing goes to waste. Everything is coherently and logically organized and related to each other."

"People think that music is something intuitive, and it is to a great extent, but it is also a lot about technique, and knowing how to do things. Our job is to bring students to an understanding that what they are doing is learning how to do things. Nobody would have written so much music if they had waited for divine inspiration. It is technique. It is logic. Making music is the same as making spacecraft or a pair of shoes or a washing machine. The same human brain that creates music and art also makes all these diverse things. So in music it's not just about having an inspiration; it's coherence in how to put things together."