But somehow, I felt no inclination to be interested in it in any amateur way, let alone professional, until suddenly I became interested. And the first thing I did was to compose: not play an instrument, but to compose.

The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz 1930-1945. "The Compleat Conductor" Oxford University Press 1998. Gunther Schuller: A Life in Pursuit of Music and Beauty.

Gunther Schuller (born November 22 1925) is an American composer conductor horn player author historian and jazz musician.