When Paul Barton was 12 years old, he taught himself how to play the piano. Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata fascinated him, and he learned to play Beethoven by ear.
In his 30s, he visited Thailand where he met his wife, who is an artist. At that time, she made sculptures of elephants for the Elephant World Sanctuary in Thailand. It is a sanctuary for rescued domestic elephants.
Paul and his wife convinced the manager of Elephant World to allow Paul to play some music for the abused animals. With his consent, Paul transported a piano there and started playing.
“I have faith that the music somehow calms them,” Paul commented. “Once, a particularly dangerous bull elephant walked straight to the piano when I started playing, and curled up his huge trunk in towards his mouth. He looked like a baby sucking its thumb. He just stood by the piano and I thought, bloody hell, isn’t this the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen?”
