44 PIAZZOLLA | ESTACIONES PORTEÑAS ∙ ACONCAGUA ∙ OBLIVION It provides him with water as well as with air. There is not one single day in Xavier Phillips’ life that is not filled with music. Not one single minute in which he does not imbibe it, contemplate it, speak it. It has flowed through his veins since childhood. Very early on, he entered the school of devotion and kindness with Jacqueline Heuclin, who had been Maurice Gendron’s assistant, then with Philippe Muller at the Conservatoire de Paris, and finally, after reaping a wealth of prizes in international competitions, with the school of generosity under his idol, who would become his master for seventeen years, Mstislav Rostropovich from whom he took his credo: ‘As an artist, we give something through what we do, with humility, and not by pushing our ego up front.’ Xavier understands the full extent of what he owes to Rostro: his invaluable teaching, concerts under his direction with the most prestigious American orchestras after his debut with the Orchestre de Paris, and that passion for passing on, an overwhelming necessity for him.
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