Sailing with Bach - the violinist who travelled the world to help children in Africa

words by Feliphe Lavor

A white man with blue eyes, dressed in black, playing classical music on a violin in the middle of a favela in Rio de Janeiro. It may sound a bit strange, but it actually took place just a few months ago.

The man in question was David Juritz. Facing a mid-life crisis – as he himself put it – David decided to travel the world playing the violin in public spaces, collecting donations to help support projects offering music lessons to underprivileged children in developing countries. That was how the Round the World with Bach project was born.

In London, his home town, David is the respected leader of the London Mozart Players, the city’s oldest chamber orchestra. Between international performances and other projects, he’s conducted soundtracks for films such as The Merchant of Venice and The Last King of Scotland. Married with two children, you could say that David has a peaceful, stable life in the UK. But during the months he spent travelling, the glamour of the concert halls and his tranquil family life were but a distant memory. David set off without a penny to his name, with his violin and rucksack on his back, all set to play the instrument out on the street.

Though unusual, his plan was, nevertheless, relatively simple: he aimed to travel, strike up contacts before arriving at each destination, and play wherever possible, collecting the maximum amount of donations possible.

He began on the 23rd of June and spent exactly 4 months away, trekking across Europe, Africa, Australia, Asia, South America and, last of all, the USA and Canada. He was in Rio de Janeiro last September, and whilst there he performed in a favela below the feet of Christ the Redeemer, in a state-run music school and in squares across the city. Funnily enough, there isn’t actually any specific word in Portuguese to translate the term “busking”, but it looks like people got the drift in Brasil anyhow! David has already set a date to go back to Rio – this time with his family in tow.

Over the course of this four month period, as you might expect, David had quite an experience. The figures are interesting: 50 cities, 24 countries, 14 broken strings, 2 million musical notes played, 4 pairs of socks, 1,236 emails sent and the words “thank you” learnt in 13 different languages.

But the most important figure of all proves the success of his venture: he managed to raise $50,00 for Musequality, the social project he coordinates. The money will be sent off to the three centres that Musequality supports on the African continent: the Tender Talents Magnet School in Kampala, Uganda, which looks after orphaned teenagers with Aids and refugee children escaping from local conflicts within the country; the Hout Bay Strings, in Cape Town, a musical project that helps children in the shanty towns of South Africa; and the Melodi Music Project in Soweto, which provides music lessons and instruments to underprivileged children in Johannesburgh.

All of David’s food, accommodation and transport costs were paid for with the money he received for playing. That is, of course, when some charitable old soul didn’t offer him a lift or a place to stay for the night. But this didn’t always happen, and David had to keep on playing right up to the end
of his journey, literally: his last busking spot was at Heathrow, upon his return to the UK on the 23rd October, so that he could gather together the £3 he needed to catch the tube back to his house in Turnham Green!

Visit the project’s official site and check out photos of David’s travels. Some are rather nice
like the one in Portsmouth. Who knows, perhaps it will inspire you to find a novel way
of getting through your own mid-life crisis? JD

Sailing with Bach - the violinist who travelled the world to help children in Africa

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