Paralympics 2012: Meet the British Paraorchestra

 The Paralympics have, above all, shown the rest of us that there should no longer be any no-go areas for  those with disabilities, so it was entirely fitting that the climax of closing ceremony saw a newly-formed orchestra of 17 disabled musicians playing out the games as the flag was lowered over east London. So fitting, indeed, that it is hard to credit how hard conductor Charles Hazlewood had to fight to make sure it happened. But he did. “I was jumping up and down, shouting, knocking on doors, like crazy, but once
people started to listen to the idea, they got it immediately”.

Our first goal,” he continues,is to use the global platform of this event to create respect for disabled
musicians,to put a good idea out there to a world audience. I want every major city around the world to
look on and ask why it doesn’t have something similar. And then after that, through education, information and technology, I want to see every big orchestra in the world including performers with disabilities.”

The British Paraorchestra, then, is the first step on a journey that Hazlewood already has mapped out.
“I am not interested in creating a ghetto for disabled performers, but using this opportunity to lift
them up, enable them to take their rightful place.” And that is side-by-side with non-disabled musicians,
on equal terms.

The current almost complete absence of people with disabilities from orchestral ranks only really began
 to rankle with Hazlewood when he had a daughter, Eliza, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. It is not that he feels she is a precocious prodigy being held back from a dazzling career as a musician. “She’s only six,” he protests, “so I’m not making any extravagant claims”, though he does then add with a fatherly pride that Eliza “has a strong connection with music”.

Why can't musicians with disabilities compete at the highest levels, as we have seen sportsmen and women do? “Nobody with any intelligence,” he continues, “would now argue that there aren’t sportsmen and women with disabilities who can compete at the highest level. So why not musicians? Clearly they exist, but where are the platforms for them?

Link to the performance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu9CvbGJmss

Street corner to Corner office :How Jay-z built a $ 450 million empire

Some people think Jay-Z is just another rapper. Others see him as just another celebrity/mega-star. The reality is, no matter what you think Jay-Z is, he first and foremost a business. And as much as Martha Stewart or Oprah, he has turned himself into a lifestyle.

You can wake up to the local radio station playing Jay-Z's latest hit, spritz yourself with his 9IX cologne, slip on a pair of his Rocawear jeans, lace up your Reebok S. Carter sneakers, catch a Nets basketball game in the afternoon, and grab dinner at The Spotted Pig before heading to an evening performance of the Jay-Z-backed Broadway musical Fela! and a nightcap at his 40/40 Club. He'll profit at every turn of your day.

Jay-Z grew up splitting his time between peddling cocaine and rapping in his native Brooklyn. But by the time hip hop had grown into a popular musical genre -- and a powerful economic force -- he had solidified his position as one of its pioneers.

Early on, Jay-Z displayed an acumen for business. In 1994, unable to find a company to produce his debut records, Jay-Z, Damon Dash and a silent partner founded their own label, Roc-A-Fella Records. And when a distributor agreed to take on the album, he negotiated a deal to retain ownership of the master recordings.

In the late 1990s, he discovered that sales of Iceberg apparel rose after he began including references to them in his songs. But when he went to Iceberg and asked for an endorsement deal, the company demurred. Instead, he started his own apparel company, Rocawear. In 2006, Rocawwear was sold to a brand licensing company for $204 million.

There's been much more: a line of sneakers for Reebok, the 40/40 nightclub chain, an ad for Hewlett-Packard, and an interest in the hot New York City gastro pub, The Spotted Pig.
Jay-Z's tale is compelling not just because of his celebrity, but because it embodies the rags-to-riches American dream and is a model for any entrepreneur looking to build a commercial
empire.