“Exile from live contact with audiences has motivated many artists to make the most of quarantine by focusing on a recording project or tackling new repertoire,” writes Thomas May in the July-August issue of Strings magazine. “Vijay Gupta opted for both with his debut solo album, When the Violin, a digital self-release that appeared in June…. But for the Pasadena-based violinist, these efforts do not represent items to be added to a list of accomplishments. Instead, they are part of an ongoing process of questioning fundamental assumptions about how we interact with music…. ‘I’ve always lived in somebody else’s story: the story of being a “child prodigy,” a conservatory trained violinist … winner of a MacArthur “genius” Fellowship—and all of these labels felt like they didn’t represent my authentic voice,’ Gupta explains.” Gupta was a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for over a decade. “It is through his work with such social justice–inspired endeavors … that Gupta says he developed the voice he believes is most authentic. In 2011, he founded Street Symphony, joining with colleagues from the L.A. Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Master Chorale to engage with local communities suffering from homelessness, incarceration, and poverty.”
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