Folks Video Story: An Orchestra For Everyone

Prizewinning conductor Ronald Braunstein had a much-heralded early career in the classical music scene. After graduating from Juilliard, he won the first prize in the Berlin Philharmonic conducting competition—the conductor’s equivalent of winning a Gold Medal at the Olympics. From there, he conducted all over the world, from the Berlin Philharmonic to the Swiss Radio Orchestra.

Eventually, Ronald’s career unraveled due to his bipolar depression. Stigmatized for his mental health issues, he was eventually fired from a high-profile conducting job. But that isn’t the end of Ronald’s story. Embracing his diagnosis, Ronald recentered himself and founded the Me2/Orchestra, the world’s first classical music ensemble for the mentally ill.

In this, our first video Story, Ronald Braunstein let Folks film behind closed doors of a Me2/ rehearsal, while telling us about how he turned his life around after being fired for having bipolar disorder, how music helps him balance his depression, and the ways in which the Me2/ Orchestra has helped him and others realize that having mental health issues is nothing to be ashamed about.

If you like this Folks Video Story and would like to see more, please share it on Twitter or Facebook, and like it on YouTube. And if you’d like to learn more about Ronald Braunstein and the Me2/ Orchestra, you can do so by clicking here.