Composer with dementia gets to conduct his own piece
mainA man living with dementia, retired music teacher Paul Harvey, captured widespread attention when the BBC Philharmonic recorded a two-minute piece he had improvised on four keys on his home piano. Performed by a BBC orchestra, it attracted a £1 million donation to an Alzheimers charity.
A year on, Paul, 81, has got to conduct it himself.
And now you know … the rest of the story.
Does not look or act demented!! Wonderful, good for him!
Good piano playing, good conducting….nothing more to ask for!
More power to his elbow! I am deeply sceptical about some of these diagnoses of dementia , because if you try the self-test questions , many of them are very subjective . Frankly, I cannot remember who this week’s Foreign Secretary is, and nor do I care very much. Equally , trying to remember a fictitious address ( it is always 42 West Street Kensington!) of no relevance or value to the subject of the test is just arrant nonsense.