What inspires the music of Baron Rabinovitsj? What inspires Baron Rabinovitsj? First of all, thank you for mentioning my name twice in the first question. Now, in my home town of Blazsjitsjnovkalobsztropanja in the autonomous region formerly known as Trans-Caucasia, between the Turkomen and the old kingdom of the Tartars, we have a long tradition of answering a question with a question...so, what doesn’t?
Everything inspires music! Shoelaces, refrigerator magnets, telephone numbers. (Not that I can remember mine...[thinks]...I think it starts with a 3...)
But you know, one of the most thrilling and inspiring sounds is that of an audience, holding its breath at the end of a piece, waiting, enraptured, for me to slowly lower my baton. Now that’s silence at its greatest!

What is a "typical day" for the Baron? Well, when I’m not travelling around the globe fulfilling my international responsibilities, I’m at home in my beloved Trans-Caucasia, attending to my collection of meat-eating plants, going for long, moonlit walks with my dogs and catching up on my reading. I’m a great fan of Venezuelan detective novels and various unknown philosophical works. But of course I spend most of my time practicing! I have a weekly practice schedule which I strictly follow: mondays: back-hand, tuesdays: fore-hand, etc., etc.

How would you describe the musicians involved in the performance? Approximately 5’7”, 134 pounds, no discerning features and reasonably in tune [laughs]. But seriously, they’re all wonderful people and very outstanding musicians. Most of them have been classically trained (using the Pavlov Method) and the other two are jazz musicians. The main difference between the two is that classical musicians read notes in order to know what to play, and jazz musicians rely upon a mysterious sort of inner language consisting of syllables like “doo”, “da” and “dwee”. It makes communication between the two difficult sometimes, but I think you’ll agree that the results are absolutely magnificent!

In your travels, if you can name one place, where is your favorite destination to perform? If I may just paraphrase your question for a moment, I think what you’re really trying to ask is: have I ever been injured during a performance. Well, the answer is, yes. It happened during a concert in Bamberg am Wildkogel. The music was extremely deep and the orchestra was just about to begin its final descent when, and I’m not quite sure how it happened but, somehow I got my head stuck in a French Horn. I don’t think anyone noticed and the sound from inside the instrument was just wonderful! Luckily, my injuries weren’t serious but I did have to gargle with buttermilk for the next six weeks.

What is in the future for the Baron - any projects in the works? It’s still a very new idea but recently I’ve been toying with the idea of forming an all-purple Bruckner Bossa Nova Orchestra.

What keeps you coming back for more - what is the one thing that keeps you performing, that keeps you composing? What do you love about this job? First of all, I’d like to make it clear that I do not, myself, compose. During my years at the Sznjiszminwka Conservatory, I did compose a small Sonata for Piano and Klep (A klep is a small, vase-shaped instrument with a hole in the side. Its technique was taught to me by that great kleptomaniac Hermes Trismegistos), but that is it. All the music I perform has been especially written for me by a wonderful composer, Gábor Tarján, and I’m thrilled to be able to bring his incomparable music to Cleveland.
One of the things that keeps me performing is my central nervous system. Where would I be without it? But what I really love about this job is going out on to that stage every night, looking out into that audience, seeing those enraptured faces, so full of life and music, and knowing that at the end of the evening, they’ll all be going home.