[“Private
lesson. Robert Vijay Gupta (right)
greets Nathaniel Ayers, his
sometime violin student.”]
Professor Janise White of Los Angeles conducts The Afro-American Chamber Orchestra in that city. She brought Nathaniel Ayers to our attention, resulting in a post on June 15, 2011: "Los Angeles Times: 'Nathaniel Ayers plays the Foshay Learning Center'" Ayers figures prominently in an article in the Summer 2012 issue of Listen: Life With Classical Music:
Summer
2012
Listen:
Life With Classical Music
“Where It Is Needed Most
By
Johanna Gohmann
“THE
MENTAL HEALTH CENTER us in the heart of Los Angeles's notorious Skid
Row. Rusty coils of razor wire snake ominously around the outside;
inside, a makeshift auditorium has been set up in the basement. The
chairs are of the muted, waiting-room variety and have been organized
into tidy rows for an audience of about thirty. The attendees are in
blue jeans, sweatpants and baseball caps. Some are homeless. Some
are addicts. Some are severely mentally ill. Some of their faces
carry a hardened, haunted look that speaks to a life of intense
struggle.
“But
right now, these same faces are transfixed. They are upturned with
what looks like equal parts curiosity and wonder as they stare at the
violinist at the front of the room. He is feverishly whipping a bow
across his instrument, and the beauty of the Boccherini Duo for
Violin and Cello drifts up to the low ceiling, the intricate notes
falling in sharp contrast against the clinical white walls.
“This
is Street Symphony, the brainchild of Los Angeles Philharmonic
violinist Robert Vijay Gupta. The twenty-four-year-old Gupta may
already have his hands full as the youngest member of L.A.'s
world-renowned orchestra, but his dreams lie beyond the gilded Gehry
glamour of Walt Disney Concert Hall. He wants to bring classical
music to the masses and to the communities he feels need it most.
For Gupta, this means prisoners, veterans, the homeless and the
mentally ill.”
...
“The
inspiration for Street Symphony originated with another talented
musician: Nathaniel Ayers, the Juilliard-educated double bass player
who found himself homeless due to severe mental illness. His life is
the subject of The Soloist, a
book by Steve Lopez that in 2009 became a film starring Jamie Foxx.”
...
“Gupta
met Ayers in 2008. They immediately bonded through intense
discussions of Schumann and Beethoven, so much so that Ayers later
asked if Gupta might give him some violin lessons. Gupta was happy
to oblige, meeting alternately on Gupta's home ground at Disney hall
or at Ayers' home at the L.A. Men's Project – a housing shelter a
stone's throw from Skid Row. One day, in the midst of a lesson,
Gupta witnessed firsthand the extent of Ayers' illness.
“'He
just exploded,' Gupta recalls. 'He literally started to have a manic
episode. And I really got to see for the first time, face to face,
just how ill he was.' Alonein a room with the raging Ayers, Gupta
did the only thing he could think of: he picked up his violin and
started to play. 'I played for about twenty to thirty minutes. And
I slowly sensed that Nathaniel was becoming less agitated. He
started to cool down, was muttering to himself less. And then he
picked up the violin and started playing with me.'
“Gupta
was fascinated by the way the music calmed Ayers and seemed to bring
some peace to his troubled mind. He wondered: what if music could do
the same for others?”
...
“In
2011, Street Symphony was officially born. There have been around
seventeen Street Symphony concerts so far, and Gupta is hoping to
increase that number in 2012.
...
“The
organization has even added neuroscientist Antonio Damasio to the
board, who will further explore the therapeutic effects of the
program. One of the founders of he Brain and Creativity Institute at
USC, Damasio will be working with Gupta to find subjects for a study
that will track what is actually happening in the minds of the
mentally ill when they listen to music.”
