| Fame & Fortune: Sir James Galway |
| |
|
Bankrate: You are involved
with many charities, including one to assist young players with
disabilities. Tell me about that.
Sir James Galway: I got
involved by accident. I was asked to be a patron of Flutewise. There
were 2,000 people playing the flute. They were serving sticky buns
and lemonade, exactly what you don't need when playing the flute.
Many of the kids were digitally impaired, missing fingers. I was
so moved. I just read about a study where they substituted music
for math two days a week in school and the kids who had music had
much higher test scores. But, I'm not so concerned with that; I
wish they would not be cutting history and geography.
Bankrate: You have performed
many genres of music. Are there areas that you haven't tried yet,
but would like to?
Sir James Galway: I would
like to study Chinese flutes. I feel their folk music is akin to
that of Ireland, the expression. I have some free time coming up.
I'm going to get to business learning it then.
Bankrate: You have several
cars, but you don't drive?
Sir James Galway: I never
learned -- we were too poor. There was only one man in our town
with a car; I still remember his license plate. I had a life insurance
policy mature and the stock market was bad, so I bought a Bentley.
I bought my wife a Porsche for putting up with me for 20 years.
We also have a staff car for schlepping things; we have six people
on staff.
Bankrate: How has receiving
a knighthood changed your life?
Sir James Galway: It changed
me from working class to super-hard working class. Now, I get asked
to participate in more things.
Bankrate: What's a splurge
to you?
Sir James Galway: Buying
the latest computer equipment. I'm getting a Macintosh desktop --
a G-5. I have a powerful G-4 laptop.
Bankrate: You are known
for having many flutes, even gold ones.
Sir James Galway: People
think I have 100, but I really only have about 20. I have two exceptional
ones: a gold Brogger and a gold Muramatsu from Japan. They say the
gold ones have a different sound, but I don't know. I'm looking
for the ones with the best mechanism. I have silver ones and wooden
ones, too. The wooden ones are lined in metal, now. The all-wood
ones, when you cleaned them, it would chip out little bits of wood
and change them.
Bankrate: Do you manage
your own money?
Sir James Galway: Yes,
we do. We used to leave it to other people, portfolio managers,
but then we saw it diminish. I'd read the newspaper, listen to CNN,
Lou Dobbs. They'd talk about getting rid of the tech stocks. I'd
tell the managers to sell, and they'd say, "We'll hold on a
wee bit." It was mismanagement. I wanted to shoot them. I want
no repeats of that. The best investment is to invest in talent.
That's what I do, I invest in my talent.
| 
