Friday, December 04, 2009

The Elder Statesman

I had the pleasure of interviewing Sir Mark Elder recently. In the interview he talked about many things, but importantly about how people can be touched by classical music and return to it at different times in their lives.

“I’ve tried to make the HallĂ© so much a part of the fabric of the city, that even people who don’t appreciate the music we produce, at least recognise that Manchester would be a poorer place if the HallĂ© didn’t exist. We need different sorts of music. If you can show a five-year-old child a concert orchestra, they may not need that music until they are 45, but they try that and remember these people who came to school. They may move to pop music, and that’s great because music is spiritual food. We need it as much as we need fresh air, companionship, a social life or sports. Music is something to share with others. It has to have an open door.”

What a lovely way of putting it.

Sometimes you meet people who are good at what they do. In fact, I'm lucky enough to do this rather a lot. But other times you meet a real inspiration. He's one.

The end result is here.

1 comment:

Steve Bennett said...

I had the pleasure of hosting an IoD event with him a few years ago and he was, as you say, inspirational.

He was also very generous with his time, very approachable and passionate about 'getting music into school'

Manchester and The Bridgewater Hall in particular are honoured to have him.