A Symphony of Synchronicity
At one time, Ken was just an otherwise ordinary parent, showing up like all the other parents, at his daughter’s orchestra rehearsal.
August 2002 at Franklin Farms in St. Martin’s, New Brunswick. First day of rehearsal for Erika on her first day with the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra. Standing with other moms and dads, Ken is waiting, watching and chatting. The woman next to him just happened to be the president of the NBYO volunteer board. During the conversation, his ears perked up when he heard the words ‘Carnegie Hall’. Barb went on to explain the orchestra had just received a letter from one of the world’s most prestigious concert halls inviting them to perform. Listening intently, Ken learned there was no way NBYO could even consider such an impossible project. The youth orchestra was barely viable, with an annual operating budget of $25,000. They had two part-time staff, performing only 4 concerts a season to audiences of under 1,000. They had no means, no resources, no capacity to even remotely entertain this most audacious, far-fetched idea.
In that moment, Ken’s first thought was, “How can we not say yes?”
The way Ken saw it, that one concert of a lifetime could do more to advance NBYO than anything they had done in the previous decade. It would be a magical experience for the kids, similar to a college baseball team playing at Fenway Park or a junior hockey team facing off at Madison Square Garden. And that’s when Ken asked Barb the next logical question: “If we could find a way to raise the $140,000 required for such a trip, could we go to New York and perform?”
Synchronicity has been described as a meaningful coincidence where something other than pure luck or chance is involved. But the probability of that to occur always hinges on taking massive, bold action in the moment. Never in his wildest dreams, could Ken MacLeod have imagined that a single step toward positive change would unleash thousands of steps of divine energy. The latest is an enchanting collaboration with Dan Brown, the #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Da Vinci Code and his latest project Wild Symphony. Follow the musical cues and discover how any leader can orchestrate their own Symphony of Synchronicity on this latest composition of Leaders & Legends.
“Develop your senses- especially learn how to see. Realize everything connects to everything else”
LEONARDO DA VINCI
What if there is an everyday sort of magic you could readily access each day? That inexplicable connectedness we have all experienced with people, places, art and more. What if those coincidences are a wink and a nod from the universe; a whispering voice urging you to act on what we you called to do. Could a deeper understanding of the vessel called ‘synchronicity’ be crucial to navigating chaotic currents on the river of life knowing that change from within dictates how patterns in your outer life will also change?
Flashback to that split-second moment in time when Ken MacLeod posed the Carnegie Hall question, ‘How can we not say yes’?
That one question created an opportunity for Ken to create a budget for $140,000 and present it to the board. Despite heavy skepticism and maybe a few eye rolls in the room that day, Ken spearheaded a fundraising campaign that generated $145,000 and The New Brunswick Youth Orchestra performed at Carnegie Hall in April of 2003. They also recorded their first CD and were featured in a film documentary of their unlikely trip.
The rest, as they say, is history. And what a history to behold!
Today, NBYO operates on a budget of $5 million dollars with 78 full-time employees. They perform about 150 concerts a year with 80,000+ attendees. Their accomplishments also include international tours that have taken them to venues in Parma, Italy, The Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, the home of the Vienna Philharmonic in Austria as well as performances in Germany and the Czech Republic. All told, they have recorded six albums, captured an East Coast Music Award, the Prime Minister’s Award for Social Innovation, the YMCA Peace Medal and the TD Canada Trust Award as ‘Arts Organization of the Year’.
But, wait … there is more!
Launched in 2009 after Ken and board members David Hawkins and David Adams embarked on a fact-finding trip to Venezuela, NBYO created Sistema NB, an after-school program for underserved children. Beginning with about 50 kids at Beaverbrook School in Moncton, Sistema NB now serves more than 1,200 children across the province with a 15-year goal of enrolling upwards of 10,000. The award-winning documentary film, ’Sistema Revolution’ has been broadcast nationally on CBC television and today, Sistema NB ranks as the largest youth music program in Canada.
Those achievements are only possible when a visionary leader like Ken MacLeod sees possibilities when many others only see problems. Over a recent coffee chat, Ken shared his personal philosophy on harnessing the game-changing horsepower of synchronicity. In Ken’s mind, three things that need to happen.
1. Do Things.
2. Be Seen Doing Things.
3. Double Down on Leveraging All Outcomes.
According to Ken MacLeod, “It’s about seeing opportunity and multiplying the impact in a positive way that is congruent with your values and beliefs. It’s not about a gimmick, a shortcut or a frantic race to climb the ladder of fame and fortune”. In other words, Ken is playing a much longer game. The kind that creates meaningful change and a legacy of putting an end to generational poverty.
So how in the world did Ken MacLeod and the NBYO manage to attract the attention of a world-famous author like Dan Brown? Was the magic of synchronicity involved to spark awareness, action and response?
In April of 2022, Ken took it upon himself to create a 60-second video to defend young musicians mocked in a television ad by Nissan. Trying to sell vehicles while using struggling kids as a public punching bag, struck Ken as most unfair. Downright irked, he started Doing Things. Grabbed a notepad. Started scribbling. Brought a production crew together to film an ‘Infinity of Young Talent’.
This video garnered millions of views, shares, and much international attention, especially in the classical music world. It also got noticed by a New Hampshire-based author who also happens to be responsible for selling more than 200 million books worldwide. The DaVinci Code may have been Dan Brown’s biggest commercial success, but many would be surprised to know he is also a musician and composer. A dramatic departure from a middle-aged Robert Langdon pursued by deadly enemies in a glamorous foreign city, Brown released an illustrated children’s book and musical composition in 2020 entitled Wild Symphony. Somehow, he had stumbled onto the ‘Infinity of Young Talent’ video.
With that single YouTube video and applying the principle of Be Seen Doing Things, it wasn’t long before Ken MacLeod received an e-mail request from Brown’s manager in Croatia.
Ken recalls, “When I saw the e-mail asking if we would be interested in having our Sistema NB kids perform the Wild Symphony program, I didn’t know what to make of it. I am saying, wait a second … Is this THE same Dan Brown who wrote The Da Vinci Code? Sitting at my desk that day, I was certainly intrigued. It wasn’t long before I started think, how can we not explore this?”
Fireworks went off in Ken’s brain. Similar to the Carnegie Hall brain burst in 2002. “So excited, I’m jumping out of my shoes. This is too good to be true! The sheer magnitude of this opportunity would be unbelievable. How much attention will someone of Dan Brown’s celebrity attract to our cause? How would that type of exposure accelerate our mission? How can we not say yes?”
And to further Double Down on Leveraging All Outcomes, Ken started asking … “Would Dan Brown himself consider coming to New Brunswick?”
Only when Ken MacLeod got on the phone with Dan Brown did he learn that the author also shared a vision to inspire kids and would amplify the message that a love of music can have tremendous social impact. Up until now, Wild Symphony had only ever been performed by adult professionals for children. By coming to New Brunswick this past June, Brown saw the fulfillment of his dream that children would perform this orchestral music for other children and their families.
And talk about a Double-Double Down!
Ken and his leadership team at NBYO partnered with the provincial government ensuring Wild Symphony books were placed in the library of every school in the province. A special curriculum for Wild Symphony was created by the Department of Education with 5,000 school children attending live shows and 10,000 watching via livestream.
Only the universal energy of synchronicity can explain profoundly meaningful coincidences that stir the soul and provide a glimmering preview of one's destiny.
Ken MacLeod and Dan Brown trusted the universe to bring them together and advance their shared mission to get kids and families off their phones and into concert halls listening to live orchestral music. For hundreds of years, it’s how humans have gathered to share the purity of music, appreciation for the arts, the deepening of relationships and the magic of the moment.
How will you respond the next time you encounter a happy accident and hear the inner whisper asking, “What If and Why Not?”
Could it be a signal being transmitted from above? A personal invitation to explore areas beyond your current understanding and welcome new possibilities? Being open to synchronicity, happenstance, crazy coincidences and exploring different avenues might not be so crazy after all. Not when you dial in and pay rapt attention to seemingly innocent, inconsequential things that fall into your lap each day.
It’s how special stories are written into the lives of others now and into the future.
It's how anyone’s legacy can be multiplied beyond infinity.
“May our philosophies keep pace with our technologies. May our compassion keep pace with our powers. And may love, not fear, be the engine of change”
DAN BROWN
p.s… To learn more NBYO, visit their website at https://nbyo-ojnb.com. For information on Sistema NB, visit https://sistemanb.ca. And if you are in the mood to enjoy the entire Wild Symphony concert with Dan Brown, here it is.
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