Watch: An orchestra plays in the children’s cancer ward
mainThese are musicians of the Paris-based Orchestre Les Siècles, with their conductor Francois-Xavier Roth, playing with and for children at the Armand Trousseau hospital.
Take ten minutes out and watch this short film. It is helping to save young lives.
The address for donations is: Association CHLOE, Hôpital Trousseau, 26, avenue Arnold Netter, 75012 Paris
Out of all the things in this world that gets under my skin, this is one of them:
Swarms of Careerists flooding to cancer clinics, or some other place of tragedy, and using it as a tool for self-promotion.
It’s one thing to give genuine charity, but it’s completely another to do it in front of TV cameras. They’re fooling themselves. Most of them don’t really care and only are doing their “good deeds” because “it’s a good thing to do”. To them (Of course this motive is buried on their subconscious) “doing a good deed” is just one more step up on the career ladder; It’s another thing to put on their resume.
And I’m not a jerk to be pointing this out. Buying into this kind of stuff or being silent about it is whats wrong.
Actually, Henrick . . . . you are a jerk.
Henrik, that’s as may be. But if the children get something positive out of this as well as the players, then so what? If the patients benefit, does it really matter what the motivation of the musicians is?
Truer words have never been spoken, Henrick. Given the sheer endless opportunities for career advancement in most orchestras, thousands of established orchestral musicians around the world frequently rush to bolster their CVs with charitable and social projects.
For example, I hear that the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra doesn’t even accept musicians’ applications unless their CVs contain at least 2 Kindergarten concerts and 1 retirement home concert and rumors have it that David Cooper really won the Berliner Philharmoniker Principal Horn audition because he beat his closest competitor by 3 cancer-clinic performances.
What a lovely humanistic idea! These kids may leave us in a matter of days or weeks, but their souls will retain unconditional love given by the musicians. These musicians have the right to do self promotion, because music is the greatest and most powerful tool to heal people, of course not always in phisical way, but emotionally and spiritually which is equally important
Well done and keep up fulfilling the great mission of music! Thanks Mr. Lebrecht for posting it!
“Children” and “cancer” are two words which should never go together and which, as a parent, fill me with total dread; total. If these kids can find happiness – no matter what the means – then this is absolutely the best goal, apart from a cure.
Life can be incredibly vile and cruel. They’re children, for god’s sake!!
That’s my lovely niece, Jenny, playing cello there, and no! Mr Whoeveryouare, as a mother of a little boy she is not into this for self promotion. It was wonderful to watch this, and only a true cynic could construe this as anything but a wonderful action.