"[Loebel] sees the conductor's role as following both personal and public paths. 'To think about the music and absorb the composer's world--that's what I want to do,' he said. Simultaneously, he feels being a visible advocate of the arts in a community is vital to the conductor's role. 'I became a conductor because I passionately believe that music changes people. You should walk out of a concert a different person than when you came in. That's the goal,' he said" (The Sacramento Union).

"There's a saying that conductors are born and not made. To a certain extent it's true. The one thing you can't learn is to have music in your blood. I really believe that we musicians are servants of our art. We are not glamorous media figures; we shouldn't feel self-important. We should be in love with music, and we should be in love with music so terribly passionately that we have to share it; it has to come out. I think you have to be 'called' to be a musician. I think it's something that happens way down inside you in a very secret, private place" (Artscape).

"To me, the greatest sin we can commit is to use music as a means of ego-gratification. You have to have a big ego, of course, to stand on a podium and say, 'I believe the music should go like this.' But that idea has to be founded on humility, on respect for the composer. For me, at least, that's what it's all about" (St. Louis Post-Dispatch).

"What interests me about new music is its relationship with the past. I like finding the connections and showing the juxtapositions." Loebel learned how to balance the familiar with the unfamiliar. "The more off the beaten path something is, the more reassuring the rest of the program should be." Loebel also is interested in developing an orchestra's relationship with its community over time. "An orchestra in an American city has to be conscious of its public. And that's not a bad thing" (The Grand Rapids Press).

 "...to simply go out every day and try to be the best musician I can be, make the next concert better, go to sleep knowing more than when I woke up" (Symphony Magazine)