A famous concert pianist travels
the world giving magnificent performances which win her rapturous applause. Tickets for her concerts sell out weeks in
advance; critics fall over themselves with praise. Sometimes she thunders away powerfully; at other times she plays quiet pieces with incredible gentleness and
sensitivity.
One night she is playing at a grand venue in New York for the great and
the good of American society. Tickets
have been going for four times the face value on ebay. It is a sole performance; she needs no other
name on the programme in order to fill the house.
During a particularly quiet piece there is a strange noise in the
auditorium. A bizarre groaning sound, it
seems. At first, the concert-goers all
think they are imagining it; but it persists.
Suddenly there is a loud shout, and another, followed by a desperate
shushing. People turn round, irritated,
to see what the commotion is. A young
man with Down’s Syndrome is shouting and clapping, with a broad smile on his
face, while an older woman whispers furiously in his ear for him to be
quiet. Eventually security guards arrive
and escort them both to the door.
When the concert tour has finished, the pianist takes some time out,
and drops off the radar for a while.
Months later, people are wondering on social media when she will
schedule the next sellout tour. She
never does. Instead she takes a job in a
care home for older people. She runs
music therapy sessions for small groups of elderly people and their
carers. Many of these folks are so
elderly that they barely seem to register the music. Sometimes, rather than playing classic
pieces, the pianist plays old music hall favourites, and people who can no
longer remember their children’s names sing along to the familiar lyrics. One elderly gentleman has advanced
Alzheimer’s and can become hostile, aggressive, even violent; staff
struggle to deal with his behaviour. On
those days the former concert pianist plays the piano quietly in the
lobby, some soothing melody he may remember from his youth. On good days, the music calms him.
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