Up to that point (I was 17 at the time), opera’s validity as drama had never really made that big an impression on me — I was still caught up with the purely vocal element. But Sills’s Elizabeth put both the music and the drama together in a way I’d never experienced before. My conclusion was simply that this was the most extraordinary thing I’d ever witnessed in a live performance. It instilled in me the desire to become part of a company that made performances of that quality happen. I’m glad to say the dream did indeed come true — first in Dallas, then in San Diego, and since 1995 in Chicago.

Joshua Weilerstein, assistant conductor, New York Philharmonic

I come from a very musical family, but I was never interested in performing until I was about 15. My epiphany moment came as a relatively reluctant violinist in the New England Conservatory Youth Philharmonic Orchestra. We were on a tour of Guatemala and Panama, and besides playing formal concerts, we also went into schools and played for children, many of whom had never heard a symphony orchestra before.

At our first children’s concert, the orchestra piled into a sweltering gym with approximately 2,000 Guatemalan children inside. Our conductor, the irrepressible Ben Zander, strode into the gym and immediately asked, “How many of you have never heard a symphony orchestra before?” 2,000 hands shot up into the air, and I felt chills run down my back. We blasted through the “William Tell Overture” and the volcanic eruption of excitement from the kids as we ended the piece was one of the most electric experiences of my life. I loved music, but I hadn’t ever experienced its thrilling effects so acutely before, and I decided there was nothing else I would rather do in my life.

Ten years later, I’m mostly conducting now — I’ve gone over to the dark side, as my friends say — but I’ll never forget that moment when those hands shot into the air. It reminds me why I’m performing this incredible music; for that one person sitting in the audience who has never heard the music we are about to play.