The General and The Maestro

[Music]

good afternoon

ladies and gentlemen and i’d just like

to introduce to you

tom donald the maestro

good afternoon ladies and gentlemen i’d

like to introduce to you

the general andy simon how are you

general

uh really great this afternoon tom hope

you’ve got your chopsticks

sorted i’m ready general

well done what we want to do today

is to give you an insight into how

fusing stories of music art and culture

helps build inspiring journeys to a

better life

[Music]

basra southeast iraq december 008

i’m the commanding general of coalition

forces

six months into closing down the uk

campaign

once upon a time basra used to be called

the venice

of the gulf it was renowned for its

poetry

and its culture and i’ve been discussing

with key figures in bazrawi society

like the grand cleric of the central

mott sheikh ali masawi

father banner of the chaldean church

sunni and shia

shakes and human rights activists

on how we could unite people

through culture just like the old days

it was christmas and we smuggled the raw

marines band

into the chaldean church in the center

of basra

in armoured vans for a service one night

a candlelit service it was quite

incredible

what happened 11th century

carol sang an aramaic that we’ve never

heard before

at the end of that service there was an

outpouring of an emotional release

of young teeny teenagers boys and girls

who told stories about living in an

insurgency

under siege in an occupation kidnapping

terror murder

[Music]

later on xavier picker lebanese artist

came to stay for a couple of months and

he was prolific captured through the

eyes and the lens of iraqi people what

was going on in basra

[Music]

we turned the headquarters into an art

gallery

invited lots of people new connections

with people having discussions and

finding new meanings and what the

paintings were suggesting about the

situation

they found themselves in

later on towards the end of our tour my

opposite number general mohammed

invited me to the opening ceremony of

the new

civic reception center in the grounds of

the old

british art deco hotel on the banks of

the chateau

arab lots of citizens came and i was

really surprised by what happened

there was a traditional adam the call to

player at the beginning

followed by a concert with islamic

orphans singing songs

a poetry recital young

children put on a play about how bad it

was

to plant bombs and to kill people

when i reflected on what had happened

during

the ten months of our tour new

relationships had been formed

and this fusion had helped create

a positive and safe environment that had

enabled

glimpses of peace

[Music]

years later inspired by

these experiences and events in iraq

plus a couple of other campaigns

in iraq over the years tom and i created

something called journey through

conflict

we fuse stories with original works of

art

suffused with live piano improvisation

singing and islamic calls to prayer

we toured festivals when on tour

in christmas of 2018 we launched our

album

called iraq last year and what we’ve

noticed

through all of this was a profound

impact

now we know that everybody’s got their

own context they connect

and take away different things in

different ways

this multi-sensory effect the

combination of all of these different

artistic forms

have created some kind of emotional

release

for some it was a catharsis others an

epiphany

some meditated to the music and went on

an immersive

magic carpet ride to a different place

after one of our events there was an

islamic christian dialogue created

and what had happened is that people

were taking the first steps to doing

something different to change

to go on a new journey to a better place

do

why does this happen and what is the

science behind the

art we know for millennia that stories

help

to make sense of the world

they tap into our subconscious our

feelings and

memories and mucus music is a great

friend for all of that

what we’re going to do now is tom

is gonna play some music

and we want you to just close your eyes

and just free your mind and notice what

comes into your

head just put it in the chat box

so tom thank you general

i’m going to do two things i’m going to

play firstly

a simple major scale and i’d like you to

close your eyes

[Music]

and now i’m going to play just a simple

minor scale

[Music]

and using improvisation i’m going to

fuse these two scales

together

[Music]

we know from neuroscience and brain

image

imagery that when somebody plays a scale

and we listen to it

a small area of our cortex lights up

when we start to improvise there’s more

electric activity and synaptic

connections

are made we can get into a state of flow

when we improvise

as our creativity and expression is

released

and the other parts of the brain that

inhibit

creativity and expression in other words

self-control

lesson with this flow

we can start to use our imagination we

can visualize things

new possibilities and ideas and if we

create an intention around that

with synaptic connections already

established

which turn into neural pathways and we

know that intention precedes action

then we can start to live our future

now what we’ve done

is released through this free form and

flow

a very creative environment

[Music]

so

david has affected all of us

whatever our context in different ways

perhaps you’ve lost friends

lost your jobs understand people that

have lost their livelihoods we’ve seen

conflict on the streets as covert

exposes

the fragility and the cracks in our

globalized societies

we ran an event yesterday and towards

the end of the event

we asked people to close their eyes

and as tom played to make a wish

and we wanted to ask you to do the same

thing

so tom is going to play some music and

we’re going to ask you to just simply

make a wish

i’m going gonna shout out the wishes

that came out of

yesterday’s finale to our event

and tom is gonna improvise around those

messages

so close your eyes and make a wish

for what you want in the future

roger that general

empathy

embrace each other

off in the rain

to dance in harmony

fulfillment

and then poverty

so

thank you maestro

[Music]

and by applying this multi-sensory

approach of fusing

story music art we can transcend norms

we can catalyze change

and make the world a cleaner and better

place

for all

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

you