(soft music)
- [Alex] I've come to a hardship
as far as wanting to kind of find an escape.
There's been trouble with finding a job,
trouble with finding a stable home,
drugs, alcohol.
There was some bad times where my brother
was in an accident.
He was riding his bike down the hill,
and all of a sudden he T-boned into the side of a truck.
He had been missing for three days.
And he had been in a coma.
It really got to me.
I felt like everything and everyone was against me.
So I kinda tried to find my own little escape
and just kinda separated myself from the world.
(child laughs)
But I bounced back due to trying to be back
in my little girl's lives.
I came to Comitis to kinda get a new start.
- Peekaboo, peekaboo.
- [Man] The guy of the Comitis Crisis Center
is to restore human dignity.
That just happens to be through housing people,
providing clothing and food.
But you know what's wonderful is when someone
stands on their own two feet again.
I actually became connected
with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra
through a donor that we share with the orchestra,
and he introduced our organization
to something called the Community Ticketing program.
And through that program the orchestra allocates
a certain amount of free tickets so that
individuals that might not be able to afford
to see a wonderful concert are able to have access
to great music and really come together as a family
and have just a time to take a breath
and experience something beautiful like art,
really lifts the human spirit,
really builds up their heart.
- [Alex] Music has had an impact in my life.
I was raised up on music.
My mother and my grandmother would always ride
in the car and listen to their favorite songs.
Big Wheel Keep on Turning.
You gotta keep going, you gotta roll with the punches.
You gotta roll with the ups and downs.
♪ Big wheel keeps on turning
- The Colorado Symphony is supported by the community,
so we feel it's important to give back, ourselves.
Since the program's inception in fiscal year 2017 alone,
we gave away 5600 tickets to the community.
We feel everyone should have access to what we do
regardless of financial limitations.
That shouldn't be a barrier
to people getting to enjoy music.
We are able to provide access and opportunities
to people that otherwise wouldn't have them.
We teach, we inspire people.
We give people relief from things.
And I think it's just important that everybody
have access to that.
- ♪ I see you over there
♪ You look unhappy
♪ Mind if I borrow this chair
♪ See what's happening
They approached me about the orchestra
basically 'cause they've heard me sing outside
out with my kids.
And we just kinda have a great time
just trying to tune everything out with music,
and they always hear us clapping,
they always hear us singing.
I figure, what greater way to go through the orchestra,
show them something new, something different
that they've never seen before.
And honestly it was like music to my ears.
(classical music)
- The reality is arts are healing.
And arts are something that bring dignity to people.
When someone has the opportunity to self express,
it's a very important part of working
through your trauma to say, this is what's happened
to me, I wanna recover from this.
This is what's going on in my life.
And art is a great vehicle to help do that.
- [Alex] I've been here at Comitis
for a little over five months.
And they've actually helped out.
They've opened their arms saying, hey,
we know there's something that you can actually strive
to be out here to do good,
'cause once upon a time life wasn't always like this.
And they're just basically trying to show that hey,
everyone needs help.
It doesn't hurt to ask.
And it doesn't hurt to accept.
Thought it was awesome.
I learned quite a bit from it.
It helped me to understand a lot more
about different genres of music.
And basically how I can incorporate it
into my own lifestyle.
- [Woman] And what'd you think?
- It was great.
(laughter)