Novelist Candace Allen and Violinist Tai Murray Talk in London on 'Instrument of Change, How Music Transforms Lives Across the Globe' 7 PM Wed., 9 April 2014

Tai Murray
taimurray.com

Candace Allen

African-American novelist and political advisor to Obama's election campaign Candace Allen and American violinist Tai Murray talk on the theme of: "Instrument of change, how music transforms lives across the globe from the UK to Venezuela and beyond..."

Candace Allen is a novelist, political activist, cultural critic and screenwriter. She became the first African-American female member of the Directors Guild of America. In addition to writing screenplays, she worked as an assistant director for twenty years since the 1970's. Allen has established a distinguished career as a novelist. Candace Allen's latest book is "Soul Music, the Pulse of Race and Music" where she examines the power of music to change lives, exploring innovative music projects across the globe from Abreu's El Sistema programme in Venezuela to Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said's West Eastern Divan Orchestra which brings together Palestinian, Israeli and Arab musicians into one orchestra.

Tai Murray is Ambassador of the UK-based music charity London Music Masters (www.londonmusicmasters.org), which enables social change in inner city primary schools through its innovative music programme the Bridge Project. Working in schools across London, pupils in the four schools where LMM runs the programme, have shown a marked academic improvement. With today's headlines focusing on poor literacy and numeracy in UK's school leavers being the lowest in the developed world, improving UK's academic performance is particularly topical. Tai Murray's new CD - 20th Century American Scene - was released in November. Described as "superb" by The New York Times, violinist Tai Murray is establishing herself a musical voice of a generation.