43: Nadia Sirota

Nadia Sirota is the host and co-creator of Meet the Composer and an acclaimed violist. “I actually feel like somebody being joyful about something in their life is wonderful. ... There's this temptation when you're in college, and definitely when you're in conservatory, to try to find the right constellation of things to hate. That will make other people think you're smart. And it's really tempting, and it's really easy, in some levels, to sort of fall into that kind of negative world. In classical music, God knows there's so much tearing down of people and of technique and of whatever. ... It's so boring, and it's fascinating to listen to people talk about stuff they love because it requires a little bit of vulnerability. And also that's the kind of excitement that brings you to love something yourself.”