Last night, we had the pleasure of hosting our most recent instalment in the Culture in the Workplace Series with Sebastian Stanley, a concert pianist.

 

We heard the moving account of one man’s journey to overcome his personal challenges and realise his ambition to become a world-class concert pianist. Those challenges include: mental health, LGBTQ+ and social disadvantage; three of the issues many people in our industry, as you know, face every day.

 

It was a new format for mallowstreet, run in the style of Desert Island Discs, in which Sebastian was interviewed about his life and the challenges he has faced. 

There were seven sections to the interview, ranging from his childhood to the present day. After each section, Sebastian played a significant piece of music which speaks to that aspect of his life, concluding after the seventh section with the third movement from Beethoven’s Appassionata, arguably the greatest classical piano composition ever written.

 

Our aim is to establish a perfect forum for an open conversation about three of the hardest, yet most important, cultural topics of our time. Out of that will come a deeper understanding of the needs of our industry and the steps we must take to transform our attitudes, working practices and, ultimately, our culture.

 

We took some recordings, and will upload a link soon.

 

Thank you to everyone who attended. It would be great to get your thoughts on the evening.