On June 9, the South African born David Juritz, concert violinist and concertmaster of London’s famed Mozart Players, left his home in London with a backpack, his violin, and an empty wallet and started off on his 60,000-mile journey around the world. He had plans of busking in every city he stopped in order to raise enough money to support his travels. (Pictures of Juritz busking are seen to the left). Four and a half months later, Juritz has concluded his voyage in New York City, with $50,000 extra in his pocket and experiences that will last a lifetime.When Juritz decided earlier this year that he wanted to travel around the world with only his violin in hand, he was not thinking of personal gain. Rather, he decided to mark his upcoming 50th birthday by touring the world and performing Bach’s solo violin works in hopes of raising funds for charities that would help bring music education to underdeveloped nations. His trip, now known as Round the World and Bach, took him through every continent except Antarctica. While traveling through each continent for the past four and a half months, Juritz worked everyday from 6 a.m. to nearly after midnight playing his violin in the streets and hoping for donations. He faced apathetic people who ignored him, blistering cold temperatures and pelting rain, and even policemen who tried to arrest him. However, Juritz believes that it was all a small price to pay to help bring music education to children who really need it.
“If you actually take a group of kids and put them up on the stage and get them performing, they suddenly realize that there’s another route in life than having to clamor for attention and hav[ing] to fight,” Juritz said in an interview with reporter Patricia Zengerle from Reuters.
A good example of this is seen in Juritz’s experiences in Montevideo, Uruguay. While playing violin on a street corner, a guy who Juritz says was high on drugs, and a group of about twelve kids surrounded him. Juritz feared that he was going to get mugged. Instead, the group, who seemed transfixed by his music, stayed and watched him for quite some time. Before leaving, one of the kids, who obviously had very little money, offered Juritz a coin as a donation.
"They were exactly the sort of kids we want to help,” Juritz said to Claire Soares from The Independent . “Music does have the power to transform lives. You get self-discipline from playing an instrument. You cannot beg, borrow or steal the ability to play, you have to practice and earn it.”
Although his trip around the world was meant to raise money to bring music education to children in need, Juritz has even bigger plans to accomplish his mission. Upon realizing that that there are no charities in existence solely for the purpose of bringing music education to underdeveloped countries, he created his own charity to do just that. His organization, called Musequality, is meant to support the development of music projects in these countries. Juritz hopes that bringing music to children in these countries will help foster “self-confidence and growth in their social, intellectual and spiritual capacities.” Juritz plans to use Musequality to provide the financial assistance necessary to fund such projects and to help form partnerships between the projects created by his organization and other well-established music institutions around the world. The money raised during Around the World and Bach is just the starting point for Juritz. By the time he is done, he hopes to have raised at least $500,000 for his charity that will all go to building music education projects around the world.
Despite only having raised $50,000 on his last trip, Juritz has already made so
me progress toward his end goal. Musequality is currently helping to bring funding to The Tender Talents Magnet School in Kampala, Uganda. Although this is just one small project, this is only the beginning for Juritz and Musequality. Juritz is confident that his charity will succeed and that it will bring the gift of music to underprivileged children all over the world. He is excited to see children, who would otherwise have nothing, growing through music. The Tender Talents Magnet School, seen in the image to the right, is proof enough for him that his initiative is working, and he has spoken out about the excitement that he has about these kids’ progress. “What I find most exciting is that, when you speak to them, they are all aiming high for the future. These are kids who want to become lawyers, economists, psychiatrists, and nurses, and I’ve no doubt that the discipline and self-respect they are developing now will help them to achieve their goals. It's wonderful to see.”
1 comment:
First of all, I’d like to thank you for writing about such an amazing person and topic. I don’t think I would have ever heard of David Juritz or his project otherwise. Your post flows very well and your pictures add to the argument, rather than being merely decorative. Your introduction is engaging and pulls the reader in. One thing that you mentioned that especially caught my attention was when you described his “crowded” performance in Montevideo, writing “Instead, the group, who seemed transfixed by his music, stayed and watched him for quite some time. Before leaving, one of the kids, who obviously had very little money, offered Juritz a coin as a donation.” This passage in itself, appeals to the emotions and engenders some sympathy in the reader. You also mentioned that he endured, “blistering cold temperatures and pelting rain, and even policemen who tried to arrest him.” This again, appeals to and tugs at the reader’s emotions. Your images are good in size, and your links go to credible and informative sources.
Although there are many strong points in your post, I would like to make a few minor suggestions. There is a minute grammar error in the sentence in your first paragraph, “He had plans of busking in every city he stopped in order to raise enough money to support his travels.” I think there may be an “in” missing, but other than that, your work was well edited! It is difficult to write a post when you are reporting on a recent event, but if you could input more of your personal opinion and take on the issue, it would strengthen your post. Undoubtedly, you consider his efforts laudable, but this not wholly translated into your post. Also, if you could add the counterarguments to the topic, that would also make your piece more effective. Are there critics that think that Juritz’ mission is an overly-idealistic one? Lastly, since Juritz traveled around the world, perhaps you could provide the reader with statistics (within underdeveloped countries) on how much money, or how many schools are devoted to music programs. This can allow the reader to see the extent of the problem.
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