Classical and Jazz: Preview - MAE charity concert at St Mary Brookfield on May 13
Published: 5 May, 2011
by SEBASTIAN TAYLOR
JOHN Williams, one of the world’s finest guitarists, is playing at a fundraiser on Friday, May 13, for the Music Alters Everything foundation at St Mary Brookfield on the corner of Dartmouth Park Road and Dartmouth Park Hill.
Playing with the guitarist is composer/ multi-instrumentalist Richard Harvey, the key figure behind last year’s launch of MAE, which provides musical tuition and instruments for children in UN refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border. They are undertaking a world tour presenting evocative music from five continents, their concert at St Mary Brookfield being the only UK engagement on the tour.
The concert is being presented by Young Music Makers, the Saturday morning music school at William Ellis School attended by nearly 350 students and parents each week.
“The 150,000 people in these camps have the barest necessities – food, clothes, shelter and basic schooling – and they have clinics that can treat simple problems and diagnose more serious problems,” says YMM trustee Steve Baker. “But they do not have either Burmese or Thai identity cards, just UN numbers.” Leaving the camps is forbidden,” he says, and the children “grow up in a de facto prison; kids between countries, surrounded by barbed wire. Last year, when Richard Harvey visited the camps, he was told that the main problem for these energetic and creative people is that they have nothing to do, they have no way of developing or exploiting their talents.”
He says MAE has set itself a goal of bringing the first 1,000 musical instruments into the camps by the end of this year. “The concert at St Mary Brookfield makes a link between ukulele-strumming, recorder-playing young music makers in north London and the less fortunate ‘kids between countries’ in the UN camps.”
• MAE charity concert is at St Mary Brookfield, Dartmouth Park Hill, NW5, May 13, 7.30pm. Tickets £24 plus booking fee, but £15 with ‘MAE’ discount code. Students £9. Go to maefoundation. eventbrite.com. Or with cash from the Saturday Music School at William Ellis School, Highgate Road, NW5, Saturdays 8am-4pm, 07958 445 246, www.youngmusic makers.co.uk