Mr President, Headmaster, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen and sixth form students.
Thank you for the very kind introduction and to everyone here for the warm welcome. I feel honoured to be a guest this evening, it’s really a pleasure to be here and to reconnect with the Rainey this way.
It’s great to see so many familiar faces, and I’ve really enjoyed chatting with you all. Hopefully as the evening goes on I’ll get to meet more of you.
As George said, I live in Geneva, Switzerland which is a wonderful place to live and I’m mostly there because of how beautiful it is. I’ll tell you in a moment how I got there but for now I’d like to ask:
Who here, at least in junior school, remembers being terrified of George Johnston and Bill Hegan?
Me too. Whenever I would find myself meeting George Johnston in the corridor, I would walk closer to the wall, in case I fell over and tripped him. Once in junior school, this creative child got in trouble and the teacher sent me to explain myself to Mr Hegan. I said ok and left the room, knowing there was no way I was going to Bill Hegan’s office – did this woman think I was crazy? I hung out in the locker room for a while then went back to class and somehow everything was ok.
But in senior school, Bill and George became two of my favourite teachers and mentors and both encouraged me in their subjects, French and German, which I did as minor subjects at Queen’s, and they also encouraged me personally. I think of Mr Hegan sometimes in Geneva when I’m considering how to word something in French, I still hear him laughing about mental gymnastics.
I arrived in Geneva the September after Queen’s, having met a violin teacher at a masterclass in Nice during the summer. Jean-Pierre Wallez, a Frenchman, then in his seventies, very traditional, a famous violinist and wonderful teacher. Nearing the end of the masterclass I had asked him in my best French if he might (s’il vous plait) consider (peut-etre), giving me some more lessons (monsieur) after the week was over. He said straight away – oh, you want to study with me in Geneva? Realising it was even better than what I had asked for I said yes and my Geneva adventure began just a few weeks later.
There I met some truly amazing people. There was an Arab family with ten children who became my friends, going to their house was like stepping into a novel. One year at Thanksgiving, it was me, the father, eight of the children, one of the ex-wives, an American lady who’d flown in from the US for the dinner, and the piano teacher, who happened to be Chinese. Dinner was cooked by the family’s Michelin star chef and served by the butler, the tallest and skinniest man in the world.
The man of the house was a former banker who always encouraged my business interests. He knew I was happy playing my violin and recording but he used to ask why I wasn’t running a company. Who is going to do this if you’re not going to?
I thought about what I knew and what there was demand for, and started hiring out violins to my own students. Word spread that this Irish girl could sell you a violin and people started coming to me for all kinds of stringed instruments and other things like bows and cases. After a while, I decided to create an online store to see how far I could reach. In the past few years I’ve sent instruments to Russia, the US, and Costa Rica and everywhere in between. It’s developing all the time.
When I’d finished studying violin with my Geneva teacher I got the chance to study with a Polish teacher. Robert Szreder, on a tip-off from a stranger, had fled communist Poland overnight sometime in the seventies and arrived in Holland with his young family, from where he built an international performing and teaching career. I studied with him in Maastricht for three years and that was a truly magical time in my life. Despite his very strict Classical background, he always encouraged me in pursuing Celtic and folk music, and was keen to hear my recordings, which were happening when I could get to London in my free time.
On the performing side, after a few years of playing with the Gettys, and travelling between London, Maastricht, Geneva and here, putting my own groups together and releasing a couple of songs and an EP to radio, I started looking around for the next thing in my music. It was difficult to get good players together and to schedule everything with my other work. It occurred to me that Dolly Parton doesn’t have these problems, so I should go to Nashville.
I got in touch with Dolly’s producer, who found me a great producer for my album, released in autumn 2014. Through those connections I got to meet and to play with some of the best musicians in the world, and earlier this year I was invited to sing with Vince Gill and the Timejumpers in Nashville.
Last April I was at a business conference in Las Vegas. Hanging out by the pool one day, I happened to show some of my consulting work to a group of people there. I had turned my attention to helping others with their businesses, making the business more efficient.
Someone there liked the work and invited me to speak at the Chamber of Commerce when we got back to Nashville. That was my first ever speaking gig and it got me hooked.
I realised I had a mission to encourage and inspire people to look up and live an adventure and I didn’t have to do this just with my music. I thought why not do it also through speaking and writing. Each thing would feed and propel the other.
Now in Geneva I’ve brought it all back to working with NGOs, that’s basically charity organisations like the Red Cross. I figure it’s a good way to leverage my time and talents, as I can help one NGO that goes on to help many more people in different ways.
It’s in my heart to do this work so it’s my responsibility. For if not me, then who?
In September, I had the privilege of speaking at Prize Night at the Rainey. I told the pupils how the Rainey was a wonderful place where I was looked after and my interests were encouraged.
I also told them how they are the future leaders in our society. That’s a challenge to us, because if those pupils are the future leaders, that makes us the leaders right now. I wonder how many of us really feel like leaders or consciously choose leadership in our daily lives.
I think it’s in our culture to say Who am I to share this or lead this. Better leave it to someone more experienced.
But look around, by now we’re the people with the experience, we’re the ones with beliefs and convictions, so – and this still rings out in my mind – if not us, then who?
Like a Van Gogh painting made up of small dots, a life is created in moments. A chance encounter or a small effort on our part can have a defining impact in our lives and in the lives of those around us.
At school, in our families and outside, we have all been so fortunate to have had good influences in our lives, and it’s now our duty to pass this on and to share of ourselves with others, just like those who encouraged me. We need to step forward. Because if not you, then who.
George asked if I’d like to play for everyone this evening. I didn’t bring the fiddle, but I would like to sing for you all. I love singing this in concerts, the song is recognised all over the world and has a wonderful way of bringing people together. Allow me to share it with you tonight. It’s Danny Boy.