It has been my dream to bring live music back into the everyday lives of people of all ages… in those places where most of us spend our time, where we work, study, suffer or celebrate.
Yehudi Menuhin
As a small boy learning to play the violin, the sound that most captured my heart and those of millions of others, came from the recordings I had of Yehudi Menuhin. His unique sound, a combination of classical purity mixed with the Gypsy and blessed by the divine spark, has remained with me as the ideal voice of the violin.
During the Second World War Yehudi devoted himself to playing to the Allied Armed Forces, often in some of the most inhospitable circumstances and regions of the world. What he gained from these experiences was the hope that in some way music could help the sick, the lonely and reconcile differences between people and nations. Live Music Now was born directly from this vision.
Truly a man of the world, he spent his life trying in every way he knew to make the world a better place than he found it. Never afraid to speak out when he saw injustice, as he did in his support of Solzhenitsyn, he was never afraid of controversy. The world honoured him in his lifetime but often ignored his message which was that of reconciliation between peoples. Creating the reality of Yehudi's vision has been a privilege. The close friendship of the man I had admired since I was a boy was an inspiration.
Ian Stoutzker OBE