Falklands : Falklands' Students to Participate in World Busk
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 12.06.2009 (Article Archived on 26.06.2009)
According to Mrs Shirley Adams – Leach, MBE, the Students from the Falklands are going to participate in a World Busk on Sunday, 14 June 2009.
FALKLANDS STUDENTS TO PARTICIPATE IN WORLD BUSK
By J. Brock (FINN)
According to Mrs Shirley Adams – Leach, MBE, the Students from the Falklands are going to participate in a World Busk on Sunday, 14 June 2009. Thanks to the Manager of the Standard Chartered Bank, the venue for busking will be the portico of the bank facing Ross Road.
Students, guitar case at the ready, will be playing visitors in to the public reception to mark Liberation Day and hopefully raising money for Musequality, a UK-based charity, funds communal music projects for some of the poorest children in the developing world.
Mrs Adams-Leach told FIRS that the students plan to begin busking at 1145hrs to complete their exercise at 1230hrs.
Falklands participation began with the following message and press release to SARTMA from organiser Joanna Biddolph.
Name: Joanna Biddolph Email: jo@musequality.org
Message:
-----------------------------------------
Wonder if you can help me reach Shirley Adams-Leach to let her and her students know about this brand new worldwide event: the Musequality World Busk. We'd very much like her to know about it - and it would be wonderful if we could have buskers in the Falklands.
Musicians urged to take to the streets for Musequality - and set a busking world record!
Musicians of every sort - professional, amateur, rock bands or baroque troupes - any age and wherever they are in the world are being urged to take part in the first annual Musequality World Busk. The location is a pavement (or any other public space) near you and the time is any time (in social hours) during Musequality World Busk Week - from Monday, 8 June to Sunday, 14 June.
Sunday will be a special day for young musicians to join in and will be the day Musequality aims to set a record for the largest simultaneous busk the world has ever seen.
Musequality, a UK-based charity, funds communal music projects for some of the poorest children in the developing world, giving them the chance to learn essential skills and discover the self-esteem and confidence they need to turn their lives around. It was founded in 2007 by professional violinist David Juritz, leader of the London Mozart Players and the London Tango Quintet, when he set off Round the World and Bach, playing Bach for solo violin in 50 cities in 24 countries on every continent except Antarctica. He takes his inspiration from El Sistema, Venezuela's world-famous youth music programme that has improved so many young lives, and other projects such as Buskaid in South Africa and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra set up by Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim.
The busk is open to any musician - singer or instrumentalist - and the only qualification is the ability to smile at passers by, nodding or thanking them if they donate, while continuing to play. Children playing a piece they need to learn are just as likely to draw a crowd as are well-practised professionals playing or singing together.
The money raised will help set up new projects - Musequality is actively fundraising for a string instrument project in Goa, India - and expand existing projects - the M-Lisada Brass Band and the Tender Talents choral project, both in Kampala, Uganda; the Melodi Music woodwind project in Soweto and the Hout Bay string, voice and drumming project in Cape Town, both in South Africa.
"Busking is great fun," says Juritz a seasoned busker who can't resist the chance to pick up his violin and play on the streets of London - or wherever he is performing. "All you need is a bit of bottle - and children, especially, will also need a bottler (someone who collects money from the audience) to accompany them and keep them safe.
"Busking is also a great leveller," Juritz continues. "People make assumptions about you, just as they do about street children in the developing world. When I stood outside Zurich's famous Tonhalle concert hall playing to the audience as they went in, I earned just two Swiss Francs in 20 minutes, 400 times less than my fee the last time I'd played there. The difference? This time I was standing on the steps rather than the stage."
But many well-known musicians busked when starting out. "It's a great way to get better known and build confidence. If you can accept the indifference of some passers by and carry on performing, regardless of the rejection you'll feel, the pleasure you'll experience when someone stops to listen appreciatively is as good as a standing ovation in a world-class concert hall.
"Children in our projects talk about the difficulties they face: the prejudice that because they have nothing they are worth nothing, and the assumption that they cannot possibly make a contribution to their society. Yet, when you ask them, their ambitions are the same as ours: they want to improve their lives and be known for being good at something. One young boy in one of our African projects wants to be a journalist so he can write about the problems of children and help them. Another, a girl, wants to be an economist. Without being given the chance to turn their lives around, many children in the developing world face a life on the streets and risk drifting into drug culture, violence and crime. These kids really want to build better societies for themselves. We'd like to give them the chance they are looking for," Juritz explains.
Anyone who plays a musical instrument, or sings in a choir or group, knows that it teaches skills that are valuable in other aspects of life. In societies with entrenched gender inequalities, it challenges prejudices and gives girls a chance to express and assert themselves and be valued as equals.
"Social exclusion and lack of opportunity are major factors in creating the corrosive mix of low self-esteem and under-achievement that plagues disadvantaged communities, Juritz continues. "Music programmes offer no miracle cure but they are a reliable and effective way of addressing those problems.
When young people join a choir, band or an orchestra, they enter into a world where their contribution matters. Inappropriate behaviour spoils the experience not only for the group, but also for them - and the feedback is instant. As they tackle more complex music the children gain confidence and discover that, by working constructively, together with their peers, they can achieve something truly amazing.
"The developing world desperately needs qualified and able teachers, doctors, farmers, lawyers, scientists, business people, decision-makers and leaders - drawn from their own communities. If it is to have those people in the future it needs - today - to help its young people develop the essential skills and qualities that will enable them to turn their lives around and fill these and other important roles. Communal music- making teaches those skills and qualities - and changes lives," David Juritz concludes.
If you want to join in with the Musequality World Busk, register at www.worldbusk.org where you will find all the tips and guidance you need for a safe, hassle-free busk.
World busk details, including the time it will take place on Sunday, 14 June, are being negotiated and will be announced on our website soon. www.worldbusk.org
The benefits of learning music are well documented. Music education, described as a "weapon of mass instruction" by US Governor Mike Huckabee, brings significant and measurable benefits to children. The link between music and mathematics is well known but researchers have also found similar improvements in literacy and social integration. One study found that pre- school children, given keyboard lessons boosted their spatial reasoning by 46 per cent, while another survey discovered that music majors, with a 66 per cent success rate, are the best represented group in American medical school admissions. Children who learn a musical instrument, compared with those who don't, are significantly more likely to receive academic commendations, more likely to be involved in serving their communities and are less likely to become alcohol or drug-dependent as adults. This and other facts about the benefits of learning music, as well as about Musequality, are on the Musequality website. www.musequality.org
David Juritz, professional violinist and Leader of the London Mozart Players, will launch Musequality World Busk week at Turnham Green tube station, where he set off on his Round the World and Bach busk in June 2007. He will also busk in London on other days, including during the world record time-span.
To donate to Musequality in the UK:
http://www.justgiving.com/musequality
<http://www.justgiving.com/musequality>
|
