Birmingham did a truly remarkable thing in building Symphony Hall, which is the finest concert hall in the U.K. and one of the best in the world. The city has supported music without putting on the brakes.

For me, the main goal is loving music and experiencing the great music-making with the orchestra, which is the great reason why I conduct, and that is the main goal.

Conducting is about communication. You don't play any notes, but you communicate with the musicians.

On stage, I'm always nervous, but there is so much adrenalin, too. It's strange because I have to turn my back on the audience, and my audience is the orchestra. I communicate my energy to them, and they communicate it to the audience behind me!

My audience is like my family at this point.

My grandmother and mother were from Italy, so I was raised Catholic. That kind of just meant going to church on Easter and Christmas. I saw a radical transformation in my family when they started going to a Christian church. I watched them fall in love with God.

I've never come from a lot of money. Going to college in New York was already a financial struggle for both my family and me, so to drop out and immediately put my faith in my drag career was a huge risk to take.

I can be a friend from a million miles away. I can play basketball in China. The only thing I can't do is be a father. I missed my kids' first basketball game. I missed birthdays. I can talk to you from a million miles away, but I was missing the dad part of life.