Local teenager Daryl Ward who attends Ringsend College tells NewsFour about how music changed his life. “Before I played the guitar I cared a lot about what people thought of me.”
Daryl picked up the guitar at 14 years old and two years later he turned his life around with the help of an organisation called Musical Youth Foundation (MYF).
He is one of their first success stories, having participated in the programme for a number of years and the impact the music programme has had on him has quite literally “changed his life.” Furthermore, he has demonstrated a real willingness to share his newly-acquired musical skills with others and can often be found helping the younger or newer members of MYF to get to grips with their instrument at St. Andrew’s Community Centre in Pearse Street. To acknowledge his success, Daryl was invited by Chris Maher, founder of the foundation, to become the first Musical Youth Foundation Ambassador.
Daryl was asked by MYF to be featured in a three-minute video documentary telling his story. The documentary will show us how music education has helped him and given him the inspiration and desire to stay in school, to go on to college and to have a successful future.
“Music has changed my life because it’s made me a much more outgoing person. I have made more friends not because of music directly but because music made me more outgoing. Career-wise I would love to be able to perform and make a living off of it alone, if that can’t be done I would love to be a sound engineer and do the sound for gigs and things. Before I played the guitar I cared a lot about what people thought of me but now I have more of a, if you don’t like me attitude then just go away.”
The Musical Youth Foundation is a charity and platform for children to help them develop their social skills, communicate their feelings and to change their life through music. It gives a young person like Daryl, the confidence to re-engage with the education system and in many cases to go on and attend third-level education helping to ensure a better future, especially in terms of employment opportunities. The foundation has one simple mission: to provide every child on the island of Ireland with access to a musical education.
For more information on MYF visit their website:
musicalyouthfoundation.org
By Donna Dunne
