“He was the most wonderful man,” she says of Bernstein, who died in 1990. “My parents knew him through the business, and I watched him for many years. He was one of the tutors at the Tanglewood conducting school [where she went after studying violin at the Juilliard conservatory], which is how I first got to know him. I was terrified of approaching him at first. But having someone of that stature supporting you is just the greatest gift. He always encouraged me to let my inner nature drive me – he was my inspiration, my mentor.”