“Vijay Gupta, Los Angeles Philharmonic violinist, spoke Tuesday about how classical music can be used to elevate the homeless and inmates from suffering while drawing attention to their struggles,” writes Jameson Pitts on Tuesday (9/15) at the University of Texas’s Daily Texan (Austin). “He began his talk with a violin solo—the same solo he plays for inmates and homeless individuals in Los Angeles…. Gupta told the story of Nathaniel Ayers, a classically trained double-bassist whose paranoid schizophrenia forced him to drop out of the Juilliard School of Music and ultimately left him homeless.… Ayers inspired Gupta to begin Street Symphony, a nonprofit that performs classical music at prisons and homeless shelters in Los Angeles. Gupta said there were times he feared for his safety, but the community and other musicians came together to bring music to those who need it most.… Gupta said students could work against homelessness by routinely volunteering at a community shelter. ‘Take your time,’ Gupta said. ‘Make real relationships.’ ” Nathaniel Ayers, the subject of the 2008 book and subsequent movie The Soloist, was profiled in a November-December 2008 article in Symphony magazine.
Posted September 16, 2015
