Its leading lights include Sir Michael Tippett, a composer, Yehudi Menuhin, a virtuoso violinist, and Kathleen Raine, a poet and scholar.

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He played at Woodstock and the 1967 Monterey Pop festival, and also collaborated with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and jazz saxophonist John Coltrane.

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Conducts Yehudi Menuhin in a recording of the violin concerto.

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However for Lloyd Webber, who has worked with a range of top musicians from Yehudi Menuhin to Elton John, the purpose of the UK project is not to create a new batch of professional musicians.

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From the time he was an infant until the age of 7, Hope spent almost every day in Menuhin's house, surrounded by extraordinary musical figures such as Stephane Grappelli, Mstislav Rostropovich and Ravi Shankar.

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