THE YEHUDI MENUHIN SCHOOL

Perfect Harmony

Standard British Accent

Language Level: Advanced

Source: Speak Up

Perfect Harmony

Yehudi Menuhin was a musical genius and one of the great violinists of the 20th century. But he also dreamed of providing others with what he had missed as a child – a creative and caring environment with excellent teachers, time to practice and opportunities to perform. In 1963 he founded the Yehudi Menuhin School, which moved to the secluded Surrey village of Stoke D’ Abernon the following year. There is a very special atmosphere here, and the sound of music is everywhere: from classrooms, studios and pupils practising in their rooms. The enthusiasm and raw talent of the young musicians is something that needs careful nurturing says Nicholas Chisholm, who has been headmaster here for the past 17 years:

Nicholas Chisholm

(Standard, British accent)

What I think is always exciting, and the challenge, is to keep – and it’s the challenge, more than anything –It's to keep that awareness, that the imagination, that spark alive because adolescence can be such a deadening thing, if it isn’t given a chance to survive. And it’s very fragile. So I think that’s one of the reasons why the school Is as small as it is, so that there aren’t those competing pressures which, if you like, squeeze, or have the potential to squeeze, imagination and creativity out of children.

MAKING IT

The school currently has 64 pupils half are Britain and half are from countries around the world, including Romania, Korea, and New Zealand. The international flavour of the school represents the ideals of its founder and there are more than 200 applications each year for the handful of places on offer.

The Yehudi Menuhin School holds around 200 concerts every year and is currently building a 2.5 million pounds, 350 seat concert hall. Many of the school’s talented students dream of professional success, but in today’s celebrity focused world, that can be dangerous, as Nicholas Chisholm explains:

Nicholas Chisholm:

Everybody’s different, fortunately, and, of course, it doesn’t suit everybody. So I think there are quite a lot that are saying “I’m not sure I really want that.” And, to a certain extent, Yehudi set the school up to prevent what he saw as exploitation. I mean, he was playing on the stage around the world from the age of 10. And I think it… well, he was never quite sure this was a good idea. We don’t fell that there’s a need to rush. And so, to be honest with you, the cult of the visual, and the cult of the young, which seem to be what it’s really all about, is something that we don’t necessarily feel is all that productive.

THE STONES

Fame, of course, does have its rewards and musicians can enjoy enormous wealth as well as long playing careers. Sometimes they choose to put something back: in 2004, rock legends the Rolling Stones provided the money to set up a classical guitar course at the school.

Links between musical forms are not so unusual: Yehui Menuhin himself played jazz, was an admirer o the Beatles, and worked with the legendary Indian musician Ravi Shankar.

Whether or not musical ability is genetic is open to debate, but great musicians certainly can come from unmusical parents.

THE REAL ME

Born in Dublin, Ireland, 16 years old Shophie Cashell is a brilliant pianist and now is her fourth year at the Yehudi Menuhin School. She began playing at the age of five, encouraged by her elder brother and sister who have also attended the school. She enjoys communicating through her music. But does she become a different person when she sits at the piano?

Sophie Cashell

Standard Irish accent

No, it’s more that you become more of the person that you are when you’re at the piano, I find. It’s like a concentration of all your feelings and the whole point is that you want to express who you are in the music, without taking away from it. You don’t become a different person at all.

The gentle genius (no sound)

When Albert Einstein heard the 13 years old Yehudi Menuhin play violin at a concert in Berlin, he declared: “Now I know there is a God in heaven!” Born in New York to Russian Jewish parents, on 22 April 1916, Yehudi Menuhin made his performing debut at the tender age of seven, but was never comfortable with the tag or “child prodigy.” A musician, composer, teacher and lecturer, Yehudi Menuhin devoted much of his time to peaceful causes. Throughout the 75 years of his musical career, he was an active campaigner for human rights and viewed music as an opportunity for cultural exchange. Yehundi Menuhin settled in Britain in 1985 but performed oil over the world and always thought of music as a global language. When he died in 1999, Yehudi Menuhin was buried in the school grounds.