Music

When I was a child and a teenager I was seriously teased at school. It was a pain to go there and I can still recall the sense of relief every afternoon when I got off the bus and was finally away from my tormentors. Music was my relief. Since I was around 10-11 I played (first the violin, later the viola) in a youth symphony orchestra every week and often in the weekends as well. We also went on tours in Europe. Nobody teased me there and the fantastic feeling of creating the music together gave me a feeling I cannot put into words. But I’m certain that “music saved my life”.

Picture of Julian Lloyd Webber as a child – from DLWP.com

I was reminded of that when I read about a new initiative taken by Julian Lloyd Webber, the cellist (not the musical composer, that’s his brother). Read about it here. More here. It’s about taking music to deprived children in a project named In Harmony. It has been done with incredible success in Venezuela and other places in a project called El Sistema.

I wish the project best of luck – I’m sure it will help in getting some children off the streets and give them joy and maybe even a purpose in life.