Jan Vogler

There was no such thing as a solo career in East Germany. You had to get the best orchestra job that you could.

In Berlin... it's important to present a concert that will change their ears... so if you present a Tchaikovsky symphony, you get almost no audience.

I sometimes joke - but the joke is not so wrong - that after my time in East Germany, I could either afford therapy to work through what happened under the Communists or move to New York.

I remember my first time coming to New York City. It was 1986, and I was on a U.S. tour with a stop at Lincoln Center. It was love at first sight.

I tried to play Piazzolla's 'Grand Tango' at 20 and failed miserably. You need a little experience of life for tango.

Our biggest catastrophe was that Dresden was destroyed in the war. But the message of the city is that wounds of war can heal, and people can live in peace.

New York is the opposite of East Germany, the crown of individuality. That's why I can work well here and find out what I personally think of the pieces I'm learning. I can lay aside all the baggage of German education. In any case, whatever I do, I can't lose it altogether.

Art is what defines us, what makes us human.

Cultural activity is what makes us human.

As a professional cellist, I go to mostly classical concerts because that's the music I play, but I am also always trying to find out who the voices of our time are. I attend a spectrum of concerts that are close to classical - anything from Wynton Marsalis to Renee Fleming.

My favorite exhibition of all time was at The Met years ago, called 'Glitter and Doom: German Portraits from the 1920s.'

There's no place that communicates as much - and as quickly - as Times Square does. I see the roiling energy and its forceful race into the future. Of course, after 15 minutes, I want to get as far away from there as possible.