GLOBAL WOMAN OF VISION - AYSHA WILLS

LESLEY MACDONALD: It's a dream for many musicians to play a world-class venue like the Winspear, but that's not all Aysha Wills has to be proud of this night. The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and a host of big local names like Tommy Banks are performing because of her dream. Like the rest of us, Aysha watched in horror the devestation caused by the Asian Tsunami.

AYSHA WILLS: I thought of all the children who had...um...suffered a major loss.

LESLEY: Her friend, a girl she went to Kindergarten with in Hong Kong, was in Thailand with her family when the wave struck.

AYSHA: It's the last memory I have of them was a Christmas card they sent the day before the tsunami hit.

LESLEY: Aysha was never able to reach her friend, but thought of others she could help.

AYSHA: If I was an artist, I would probably sell art. If I were...a pilot...I don't know... um...I would fly people around, like a tour or something. But I'm a musician so I'd...I'll do a concert.

LESLEY: She began by mobilizing the ESO through her flute teacher, Shelley Younge.

SHELLEY YOUNGE: And I said it...I...I...should...I should've thought before I said...I said, "Why don't you just ask the whole orchestra?"

LESLEY: And Aysha's modest dream of a little recital grew into a huge event, raising over six hundred thousand dollars to help children of the tsumani disaster.