Which figure in music history would you want to talk to over a bottle of wine?

Luciano Pavarotti! He is my favorite singer and I can never get enough of the unique beauty of his voice. I heard he was also a great cook and always traveled everywhere with his own pasta. What an event it would be - delicious food, wine and of course - he would sing the most beautiful arias for me! :)

Besides your own, what other instrument would you like to learn?

Actually, I would learn to sing. I think being a singer is a difficult job, having to act, dance and sing at the same time, learning and remembering opera texts in many different languages. But, I envy them the ability to express themselves just through the body and not an extra instrument. Anything that they feel emerges as a pure "raw", true result. With the oboe one has to deal with so many other technical issues of the instrument - reeds for example. Sometimes an oboist’s whole attention is on the reed and whether it works or not - instead of concentrating purely on the music. I'd also love to play the piano and sometimes I feel like taking a cello and playing some romantic period repertoire.

Which composer would you most like to be, and why?

Probably Sibelius. In the past few years I had the chance to go much deeper into his music through performing it and I then understood it better than when I was just listening. I think it's amazing. And he lived a long life, surrounded by many friends, a big family of 5 daughters and a loving wife. They lived in a beautiful house in the countryside which was named after his wife. I have visited it and secretly wished to have one just like it someday.

What has been your greatest disappointment?

I had to think for a moment, but I have to say that someone up there takes good care of me, leads me well through my life and doesn't bring too many great disappointments. But, I guess some disappointments are naturally part of life. We learn through them though, move forward and hopefully become stronger people.

Complete this sentence! According to my philosophy of life…

Always give the best of yourself and treat everyone as you'd like to be treated.

To learn more about Eva Neuszerova’s career, click here.