K23
Ivor Allchurch
Yesterday evening, I found out something about Roman Abramovich which surprised me. It wasn‘t that he did it that surprised me really, it was more that I didn’t already know that he’d done it.
It’s a longish story which isn't really about Abramovich, he just pops up at the end, so please feel free to skip this thread.
From 1994 until 2004, I was a voluntary musical ‘advisor’ for a dance & drama school in the Shropshire Hills about 10 miles far from where my wife & I were living. This involved finding appropriate pieces of music for their syllabus or quite often, composing and recording them myself.
In April 1997, one of the dance school’s former students, Camilla Carr, and her boyfriend, Jon James, bought a battered old VW camper van, filled it with toys, footballs and games and drove to Grozny in Chechnya to help the destitute children who had been severely traumatised by the war in their country. After 2 months, the couple were kidnapped by Chechen Rebels and held hostage for 14 brutal months until their release. Camilla was raped on an almost daily basis and Jon was frequently beaten and it is a wonder that they ever came through the ordeal alive and still sane and they credited this to yoga, tai chi and various types of meditation in an attempt to mentally transport themselves out of their brutal existence. One of the mental images that inspired Camilla to remain focused and determined to get through, was a desire to return to the dance school and look out across the beautiful Shropshire Hills once more where she had been at her happiest as a young girl.
Every 2 years, the dance school entered a Classical Greek Dance festival with its finals being held in London. The performances from many different UK dance schools, included solos, duos, groups etc, in every age group from around 7 up to 18 year olds and the finale was always the senior choreography group section which was for about twelve 17-18 year olds and unlike the younger sections which had to conform to certain themed content to be interpreted within relatively short time slots of 3-4 minutes, there were no such restrictions on the senior choreography groups although they did have to stick to a maximum of 10 minutes just so they could all be fitted in.
In 1999, the students decided they wanted their entry in the following year’s festival to be a tribute to Camilla Carr who was still revered at the school and after one of the girls wrote a very moving poem about her ordeal called “The Voice of Freedom“, they decided to use that title for their entry and incorporate some of the lines from the poem in song form.
They asked me to compose and record the music for their entry. I had already done two for previous entries so this wasn’t a shock and over the next few months, I came up with a single piece in 5 sections which lasted 9 mins 26 seconds so well within their time limit.
For that year, the July 2000 festival finals were renamed the International Millennium Dance Celebration as there were some additional performances by overseas visitors but a couple of months earlier, Camilla and Jon visited the dance school in Shropshire to witness rehearsals of the now finished routine and they were completely blown away by the drama and intensity of the performance. Later the same day, I spent a few hours with them and they were such a nice, gentle couple, it was painful to imagine what they had been through. At the Festival Finals, The Voice of Freedom won the senior choreography group section
For me, that’s where the story ended but yesterday I was transferring various old bits of music from CD onto my computer and one of these was The Voice of Freedom so, just out of interest, I decided to Google Camilla and Jon to see what info was available online and what had become of them. I found out that they now run a charitable trust called The Forgiveness Project helping people traumatised through war, crime and violence and various rehabilitation groups.
However, what I also found out during that research, was that the ransom money for their release had been paid by Roman Abramovich. It probably wasn't much to him but it was still likely to have been a considerable sum. I didn’t know that at the time and in any case, his name would have meant absolutely nothing to me then as he didn’t buy Chelsea until 2003 and it was only then that he became a household name in the UK.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8862852/Abramovich-paid-for-release-of-two-British-hostages.html
https://www.theforgivenessproject.com/
A review of Camilla and Jon's book
https://www.frontlineclub.com/surviving_a_kidnapping_in_chechnya/
The Voice of Freedom music
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/4bx2eg9yhjr2q06na45g4/Voice-of-Freedom.mp3?rlkey=386sytbimv8qmaky00ip2q8kt&dl=0
It’s a longish story which isn't really about Abramovich, he just pops up at the end, so please feel free to skip this thread.
From 1994 until 2004, I was a voluntary musical ‘advisor’ for a dance & drama school in the Shropshire Hills about 10 miles far from where my wife & I were living. This involved finding appropriate pieces of music for their syllabus or quite often, composing and recording them myself.
In April 1997, one of the dance school’s former students, Camilla Carr, and her boyfriend, Jon James, bought a battered old VW camper van, filled it with toys, footballs and games and drove to Grozny in Chechnya to help the destitute children who had been severely traumatised by the war in their country. After 2 months, the couple were kidnapped by Chechen Rebels and held hostage for 14 brutal months until their release. Camilla was raped on an almost daily basis and Jon was frequently beaten and it is a wonder that they ever came through the ordeal alive and still sane and they credited this to yoga, tai chi and various types of meditation in an attempt to mentally transport themselves out of their brutal existence. One of the mental images that inspired Camilla to remain focused and determined to get through, was a desire to return to the dance school and look out across the beautiful Shropshire Hills once more where she had been at her happiest as a young girl.
Every 2 years, the dance school entered a Classical Greek Dance festival with its finals being held in London. The performances from many different UK dance schools, included solos, duos, groups etc, in every age group from around 7 up to 18 year olds and the finale was always the senior choreography group section which was for about twelve 17-18 year olds and unlike the younger sections which had to conform to certain themed content to be interpreted within relatively short time slots of 3-4 minutes, there were no such restrictions on the senior choreography groups although they did have to stick to a maximum of 10 minutes just so they could all be fitted in.
In 1999, the students decided they wanted their entry in the following year’s festival to be a tribute to Camilla Carr who was still revered at the school and after one of the girls wrote a very moving poem about her ordeal called “The Voice of Freedom“, they decided to use that title for their entry and incorporate some of the lines from the poem in song form.
They asked me to compose and record the music for their entry. I had already done two for previous entries so this wasn’t a shock and over the next few months, I came up with a single piece in 5 sections which lasted 9 mins 26 seconds so well within their time limit.
For that year, the July 2000 festival finals were renamed the International Millennium Dance Celebration as there were some additional performances by overseas visitors but a couple of months earlier, Camilla and Jon visited the dance school in Shropshire to witness rehearsals of the now finished routine and they were completely blown away by the drama and intensity of the performance. Later the same day, I spent a few hours with them and they were such a nice, gentle couple, it was painful to imagine what they had been through. At the Festival Finals, The Voice of Freedom won the senior choreography group section
For me, that’s where the story ended but yesterday I was transferring various old bits of music from CD onto my computer and one of these was The Voice of Freedom so, just out of interest, I decided to Google Camilla and Jon to see what info was available online and what had become of them. I found out that they now run a charitable trust called The Forgiveness Project helping people traumatised through war, crime and violence and various rehabilitation groups.
However, what I also found out during that research, was that the ransom money for their release had been paid by Roman Abramovich. It probably wasn't much to him but it was still likely to have been a considerable sum. I didn’t know that at the time and in any case, his name would have meant absolutely nothing to me then as he didn’t buy Chelsea until 2003 and it was only then that he became a household name in the UK.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8862852/Abramovich-paid-for-release-of-two-British-hostages.html
https://www.theforgivenessproject.com/
A review of Camilla and Jon's book
https://www.frontlineclub.com/surviving_a_kidnapping_in_chechnya/
The Voice of Freedom music
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/4bx2eg9yhjr2q06na45g4/Voice-of-Freedom.mp3?rlkey=386sytbimv8qmaky00ip2q8kt&dl=0
