 Right now we are outside Zellebrat Hall on the UC Berkeley campus where violinist Maxine van Gerof is set to perform this evening. This concert includes works from Bach, Beethoven, Chostakovich and Tchaikovsky. Maxine van Gerof is universally hailed as one of the world's finest musicians. A Grammy Award winner, he has performed sold-out concerts with internationally preeminent orchestras and conductors as well as solo recitals in every major city around the world. CalTV was thrilled to be able to talk with him briefly before the concert. Hi, my name is Maxine van Gerof. I'm a violinist, sometimes conductor and teacher. But this time I came to Berkeley University to perform a recital with my musical partner Polina Ossetinske. Really looking forward to that. His first time back in Berkeley after 15 years the violinist explains what it feels like to be playing after the pandemic. I feel double, even triple excited to come here to Berkeley. First of all, that I love these places. I love everything around, the nature and what pleases me also is that after pandemic things feel very much more fresh and I feel like I'm a newborn. We're kind of rejuvenated. We're more hungry for music and so are the audiences. The pandemic brought him closer to his family, which in turn led to new musical deaths. It was the worst thing that we could have had and the best thing because at the same time we had time to reflect, we had time to think, we had time to reunite with our families. At the time of pandemic we had only two girls and you know after one month when I stayed for the first time at home 30 days consecutively. My elder daughter Lisa asked me as a daddy, aren't you going away? And now it's different. I'm the father that stays at home and sometimes leaves for concert. It's a great balance for me as a musician. I think through that I become a richer musician possibly because it gives some more colors and maybe even depth to my music. One example of this is the Quarzer Sonata which featured on the concert program. For the first time I played it I must have been 12 or 13 and every time I play I discover different layers. These sonatas that were presenting they're written really for two instruments. And violin it's like it's like a dance and with Polina it's a marvelous relationship. But how exactly did this collaboration between pianist Polina Osintiskaya and Maxine Van Rof come about? So with Polina we know each other since we were kids and I mean really kids like I must have been nine she was eight. And then we didn't see each other for a very long time like you know for a few good decades and then we decided to play together. While Van Rof is a household name as a virtuoso violinist more recently we have come to know him as a conductor as well. He explains what prompted his decision to begin conducting and how it is currently influencing his musical outlook. My mother was a choir conductor that I grew up with being on her rehearsal and I was brought to my father's rehearsals where he played oboe. Then of course when I play my violin I have four strings. Now orchestra has hundreds and there are so many colors and with conducting it's less about me which I love very much it's about music it's about the musicians because conductor can't do anything without musicians so conducting lowers my ego. He also stresses the importance of viewing music as a universal language capable of uniting people of all walks of life. I've been very lucky in my life to have music as my partner because with music I was always able to communicate my emotions without words wherever I go or music is understood by most of the people. Finally the violinist has some advice for aspiring musicians. Our profession becomes more than just a job it's a way of life it's a way of thinking it's a philosophy and I never thought about violin as my job when people tell me this is your job I said no it is not it's the language I speak it's the most beautiful thing that I've been given by by God and my advice always to students is really love music unconditionally and it'll pay you off everything reporting for Cal TV this is Emily Lee