In a whimsical moment, Denis Brott, founder of the Montreal Chamber Music Festival, imagined himself as a Pied Piper for chamber music. The picture is not inaccurate: to promote chamber music, a little magic is definitely in order.

To those not intimately involved in this art form – “house” music, which is not conducted and is played in small groups – may not seem as spectacular as an opera or symphony. When it comes to obtaining funding, a chamber music fest is not an easy sell.

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We live in world of great need, a world where compassionate volunteers contribute their skills to help the uneducated, to provide for the needy and protect creatures that beautify our environment. These groups are often composed of seniors who combine their passion for travel with a desire to make this world a better place.

I talked with one such individual who is trying to make a difference.

Montreal-born Ellen Park, a 67-year-old retiree, will soon leave her home in Durango, Colo., for a three-week stay in Myanmar (formally Burma) with her husband, Ross. They will contribute skills acquired over a lifetime of corporate grind to assist village leadership teams in remote countryside regions.

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As the offspring of teachers, my childhood was a hodgepodge of family friends who were teachers.

While I have never found any evidence to support the saying “those who can’t do, teach” among the teachers in my life, it is a pleasure to encounter someone who nullifies that, such as Richard Simon of Beurling Academy.

Simon was contemplating retirement when he received a call two years ago from the board of directors of Montreal’s Hebrew Academy. They’d lost their physics, math and chemistry teacher the day before school started.

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