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