Aldean's story

"About two years ago, I found out about Heart n Soul from the internet. I rang them and they said yes come along because I had a good talent. I am a musician – I play the keyboards.

Heart n Soul is for people with learning disabilities, learning difficulties and we have fun there. The first thing I did was called Do your own thing group which does lots of things like music, drama and dance and DJ'ing. I just do the music with Charles [a professional musician who is also a tutor at Heart n Soul].

Since I was about fifteen I started to play the keyboard at school. I feel more professional since I started at Heart n Soul.

I have performed at the Squidz Club playing keyboards. [The Squidz Club is a club organised by Heart n Soul for young people with learning disabilities featuring music and DJ's – it is held three times a year at the Albany in Deptford.] I was so happy with it.

I performed at the Liberty Festival in Trafalgar Square last year as well. We did dance and drama . I enjoyed that. I was not nervous at all. I just had a great time, I had fun and I forgot about all the negative things.

I now do a lot with the Jazztronics group at Heart n Soul. It started off as a jazz group versus electronics but now the two groups joined together. I play the keyboards and we performed at the Beautiful Octopus Club and at the Paradise Gardens Festival – that was the best one. I did a solo at that festival which was fantastic.

When I came to Heart n Soul I had a magical feeling, like a happy feeling. I became the happiest person of all times! When I first came I felt like it helped me feel like a mainstream person, and now I want to be a professional musician and create some music."

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London Councils funds Heart n Soul to provide a year round programme of cultural activity for adult artists and audiences with learning disabilities from across London.