I have been incredibly lucky in my life with the people I’ve met. The list of names is too long, and I’m sure I impacted their lives infinitely less than they influenced mine. Jobs, Gates, Wolfram, Allchin, Silverberg: the list is long.
The same is true for musicians. Having a classical pianist background, I was fortunate to study with Curcio, Boulez, Kondrashin, Dutoit and Groves. And to meet on recording sessions with Ashkenazy, Marriner and many more.
They say you should never meet your heroes, but they are