A man who cannot read a note of music has undergone a challenge to compose music and recruit an orchestra from people he meets on the London Underground.Shaun Buswell has set himself the 12/12/12 Challenge to raise money for charity, meeting enough musicians to form an orchestra and perform in one of 12 top venues on December 12th 2012.
He has just 12 months to come across musicians travelling on the Tube and approach them for the project. The only condition is that he must not know the musician and they must be carrying their instrument – or part of it – on their journey.
In addition, Shaun must write all of the music for the symphony orchestra by himself. The orchestra will then perform in a top London venue that is willing to host the event. Venues range from the Royal Albert Hall to the Barbican and Koko club in Camden.
Funds raised through the project will go to Music4Life, a charity project run by Kick4Life, which helps to transform the lives of children in Lesotho in southern Africa.
While interested musicians might position themselves in Shaun’s way on the Tube, he will be writing a blog about his experiences over the coming months.
Already in his first weekend of musician-hunting he has learned not to search for people during rush hour and that a flute “is going to be like the holy grail. It’s hidden in bags and almost impossible to find!”
This is not the first time the musician has taken on such a challenge. Last year he set about finding an orchestra to perform a work that he had composed.
He claims that when he met the orchestra he did not even know what an oboe looked like. Yet on February 12th, the Buswell & The Wootton Bassett Orchestra performed at The Wyvern Theatre.