Transcriber: Denise RQ Reviewer: Sebastian Betti
(Violin)
(Applause)
Thank you. Merci.
I am very happy to be here.
I have never been on stage before without these guys.
So, today is no exception, although I have to put them down.
These instruments are my lifetime partners, buddies, friends.
So, right there, is the source of happiness and business for me.
My name is Zhang Zhang. I'm from Beijing.
I didn't invent anything cool
nor make any life-changing discoveries somewhere, I’m afraid
In the next ten minutes or so, I'm going to share with you
my story and an idea.
The story starts in China, in an old literati family.
Here's a photo from 1908.
The baby in the middle grew up to be my grandmother
and a pioneer in creating welfare support
for women and children during war time China.
Here's the family in around 1920.
During a family wedding in our home in Beijing.
Notice that none of the little girls had bound feet.
They all had natural feet.
And each everyone of them went to university or medical school
and chose the men they wished to marry
which was still quite revolutionary at the time in China.
By the time I was born towards the end of the Cultural Revolution,
my family had lost their home, their business, their material wealth,
as the many similar families in China at the time.
But they kept their dignity and courage
even when everyone was sent to labor camps
to work in the fields to be reeducated.
My grandmother, the sociologist, spent three years
in the south of China planting rice.
Her husband, my grandfather, who graduated
from Columbia University in New York,
was sent to raise pigs
it was, apparently, a very sophisticated métier
and cut stones in a mine quarry also for about three years.
Just before my birthday we were allowed to come back to Beijing
and they had found their home occupied by the Red Guards.
The only place available for them was their kitchen.
So that's where we lived.
I spent the first few months of my life with them
because my mother was doing her time in another labor camp created for artists.
My mother was an acclaimed film actress since the age of 14
and a professional classical pianist.
Her films had millions of fans and her face was featured
on giant billboards, magazines, and comic books.
Here's a [poster] from 1958, I believe.
She's the one in green. She was 14 at that time.
This is a poster from the time.
My father at that time was also quite well-known.
He was the principle violinist of Madame Mao's orchestra.
His performance was often on the radio and television
though of course we didn't own a television
that's what we were told.
Here, on the left, is my mother.
She was about 20 the time in a very popular Chinese war film.
These were women prisoners, you know, sewing the flag --
right about to be established Communist China.
So my father he even performed for Nixon during the president's visit in China.
So my parents had a lot of fans and large followings all of the country.
But in those days, fame did not translate into material abundance.
Even though my parents were very well-known,
we were very, very poor.
We lived in a room that was nine square meters in a two-room flat,
another family lived in the other room.
My little brother and I, we slept on a broken sofa.
We didn't even have a table. There was no room, no table.
So for meal times, we used the wooden piano bench
of my mother's piano.
You know, the bowl of rice on the little bench.
So some of you may say,
"What? They don't have a table, they have a piano?"
Yes, life is a question of priorities.
So, my education, musical education began in that little room
with no table.
I started playing the piano at the age of two,
and the violin at the age of four.
Yes, as you can see, I didn't look very happy,
and I wasn't.
The first year of playing the violin is rather tedious repetitive work.
At least it was to me.
And the sound that was coming out wasn't very nice, either.
So this is proved, I was not enjoying myself.
The only time, actually, I didn't have to play the violin everyday was
when my father was arrested and in prison by Madame Mao
for having openly disagreed with her.
I was actually with him when they came for him into our little room.
Several men arrived, and my father went with them
and didn't come home that night.
But that might've been the end of my father, our family,
and my career as a violinst,
but when Madame Mao herself was suddenly relieved of her powers definitively,
my father was released, which of course was wonderful for our family,
but it also meant I have to go back to the sole minds
of practicing the violin everyday, which was less wonderful.
So those of you who study music will know
what I mean when I mention the word 'intonation,'
'justesse' in French, 'yīnzhǔn' (音準) in Chinese,
which literally means the accuracy of sound.
So this really made my life miserable at that time.
In Chinese, the word 'music' is made of two symbols:
'yīn' (音) and 'yuè' (乐), sound and happiness.
So, I assume: "Achieving the right sound will lead to happiness."
In 1981, my parents received permission to leave China.
This was just the beginning of the opening at that time.
But they were told they must chose between their two children
as only one will be able to go with them.
My little brother, who was six years old at that time,
Here we are, right before our departure, with our grandparents.
My little brother was left behind
because we couldn't go together.
And that was the choice my parents had to make.
Nothing could've made up of the lost time of not growing up together,
but Leo eventually joined us after several years of separation,
and grew up to be a wonderful musician himself.
Here you see him. A cellist, a singer, with his own rock band.
So all those lost years, we could not have again
of not being children together.
But because we share our music together, we are able to remain close
with good understanding of each other.
And that is thanks to the power of music.
On April 1, 2000, I was engaged by the Orchestre Philarmonique de Monte-Carlo
in the Principality of Monaco,
one of the oldest orchestras in the world.
I've never been to Monaco before and as you can imagine,
it is as different as it can be from where I had come from.
But Monaco is not just about the casinos, Formula 1, super yachts, James Bond,
there's a lot more to this place that meets the eye.
One of the most important themes of Monaco
is the culture and tradition of philanthropy.
Most of the friends I've met in Monaco
are involved with one or several charity organizations.
And very soon I also started to participate.
In 2007, with the help and support of four friends,
I created Zhangomusiq.
Our mission was simple: Good music for good causes.
Creating musical concerts where a hundred percent of the receipts
are given to humanitarian or ecological projects in progress.
Our first concert was in a small room on top of a museum of collectable dolls.
But these are not Barbie dolls or Hello Kitties.
Some of them were very old and valuable.
But most of them reminded me of Chuckie. You know, big eyes, rather sinister.
But it was the only space we could have for free.
So at our first Zhangomusiq concert, we made exactly 800 euros
collected at the entrance by my friend Kate,
who had a little metal box and some change in her bag
so people came, they put money in the box, came into the concert.
The next day, Kate took the 800 euros and drove to Nice
where she gave the money to a retirement home run
by the little sisters of the poor,
"Petites Sœurs des Pauvres."
This retirement home consisted of residents mainly elderly ladies
who were alone in the world without sufficient means
to support themselves in their old age.
The 800 euros was used to purchase microwave ovens for the individual room
so these old ladies could warm up their soup, coffee or tea,
in their comfort own room between meals.
It does not sound very grandiose, but to those individual old ladies,
their daily lives had become a little more convenient
and that to us was a very important and worthy cause.
After a few more concerts at the Doll Museum,
we felt encouraged and we wanted to create more concerts in bigger venues,
preferably real concert halls, both for artistic reasons
and in order to generate more attendance to help the cause.
But we were faced with the practical fact that venues cost money,
and musicians also need [them] to make a living,
and cannot systematically give up paid concerts to perform for free,
even if they are very eager to offer their time and talent to help.
Knocking on the doors of private banks and enterprises
was new and intimidating to me in the beginning.
You see, in music schools and conservatories,
they don't train us in the art of marketing or fund-raising,
and I think these are very important skills for today's musician to have, actually.
So once we started knocking on those doors however, very quickly,
we've discovered that many industries and individuals
are willing to take part and support valid projects
which combines artistic excellence and concrete humanitarian work.
Soon, we were able to generate the necessary sponsorship
needed for bigger events raising more funding for more projects.
Since 2007, our concerts have funded various concrete projects around the world
including building a school for girls in Afghanistan,
fresh water wells and reservoirs in Africa,
helped to rescue injured turtles in the Mediterranean.
Most of them are injured by eating plastic
so, please, be very very careful when you go to the beach.
This will hurt the animals.
And we also participated in rebuilding roofs and schools in Japan
and the Philippines after the devastation, the recent natural disasters.
And our latest concert participated in helping women victims of war
in the Congo to reconstruct their lives.
No help is too insignificant.
Back in that nine square meters room in Beijing,
my parents' combined salary at that time
was less than ten dollars a month.
One more dollar would have made a big difference to our lives then.
If we are able to change the destiny of an individual being,
be it a human being, an animal, or even a tree,
we would have made a world of difference to that individual.
Look at this violin.
It is now 127 years old.
And once upon a time, it was living as a tree!
Save the trees.
Through Zhangomusiq, I gradually realized we have created
a functioning micro model which produces concrete results on a regular basis.
We have turned the traditional two-way relationship
between the performer and the audience into a four-way partnership:
the sponsor who supports the logistical cost of the concert,
the performer who shares [his] art,
you, the audience, whose tickets will go into helping
a concrete humanitarian or ecological project in progress,
and the charity organizations who will have a chance to generate
not only funding but also awareness for their cause to the greater public.
Now some of you, or some of my friends might say:
Well, why should I pay 20 euros to see the local symphony or to see you playing
when I could, at home, access the best concerts live from Berlin,
from Vienna, from New York, and for free?
Now, maybe, I'll say: "What if I told you that 20 euros that you're going to pay
to buy a ticket to see me play or see some local orchestra play
will go into help someone, and change their lives,
a child to pay the school fees for a year or for someone
to have access to fresh water.
Would you still stay at home, or would you come to the concert?"
For this is also our way to share our music to bring in more audience.
Music is the unifying energy.
We can bring people together those who can help,
and those who need help.
The concert stage is a natural platform to communicate ideas, emotions,
information, and inspiration, as we have been doing here.
Give those who are in need a stage to present their cause to the greater public,
give those who want to help a concrete project to work with,
we can turn our business into a tremendous source of happiness
not just for ourselves or those who love music,
but also for the expansion of a greater well-being for humanity
and for our planet.
One tree at a time.
Music is an universal language shared by all of us,
it is also a powerful instrument for positive change.
My goal is to turn the micro idea of Zhangomusiq into a global movement.
Together we can help.
Ensemble, nous sommes meilleurs (together we are better).
Thank you.
(Applause)