In ever admiration of the wonderful work Macmillan Cancer Support do, building up momentum and awareness for our fundraising concert in February 2018 is an ever challenging role to try to raise as much as we can to support their fantastic work.
I, like probably so many, know of family members and friends affected by cancer and knowing of organisations like Macmillan Cancer Support who dedicate their efforts to bring comfort back to so many lives brings some hope of humanity to support and reassure individuals and families.
I have known of people who despite best efforts of surgery and treatment, cancer has triumphed but also know of some victories against cancer too. Lives who have been shortened and lives who have been threatened. The strength which comes from each story I've known is resilience. Facing terminal illness brings so many life questions to mind and your own core strength is challenged to your own limit and pushes you to some unknown territories.
Life shouldn't be taken for granted and if you have a desire to do something then you should pluck up the courage to do it (within reason!). 'Easier said than done' is a familiar response and a saying and feeling I am only too aware of. But that is the easy option - to brush the challenge away. The difficult option is to accept the challenge, which is to find a way to do it.
Richmond Orchestra's Fundraising concert facilitates a way for closet virtuoso's (musicians, conductors, music enthusiasts ... ) to fulfill their ambition; whether you want to dust off your piano skills, pick up a baton for the first (second, third ...) time, or listen to a live orchestra play a piece of music you have requested especially, this event is versatile and as far as I'm aware quite unique. I haven't heard of any other opportunity making these acts so accessible.
Each of our orchestra members are asked to raise sponsorship to play and our concert participants are also asked to contribute for their requests. What I think will make a key difference to everyone's motivation would be if everyone involved with the event gives a name of friends or family affected by cancer so we can bring shared experiences together and make the event even more meaningful, inspiring people to do more and push themselves that bit further to reach their goal and ultimately be able to donate more to the work of Macmillan Cancer Support. In the face of our ambitious target, what I am reminded of is that my friends and family who have been diagnosed with cancer didn't have the choice to accept the challenge they faced and they have overcome tremendous feats and so what's stopping us from acting without choice and not only participate in this challenge but exceed our own expectations from it.
Appreciating music for me is a moment to escape into a world of sound evoking so many emotions. I can be captivated for those few fleeting cathartic moments. I learnt to play the violin and piano from the age of six and continued to achieve a grade 8 on the violin. I didn't play for about six years before deciding at twenty-four to join a local amateur orchestra. I had found a new enjoyment from playing again. I was, and still playing without any other motive other than trying to re-create what I had felt. Those gruelling lessons drilling patterns and rhythms finally make sense and I think what I'm trying to express is that if something doesn't make sense at the time, there usually comes a time when it will.
"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything." Plato
