(wistful piano music)
- When I walk into Skid Row,
I'm overwhelmed with guilt and shame
that a place like Skid Row exists in walking distance
of one of the greatest concert halls in the world.
(uplifting music)
For the people who experience chronic homelessness,
music is not a form of entertainment.
It's a lifeline.
And when we make music in Skid Row,
it's not about doing something for the homeless.
It's about understanding our neighbor.
(lively symphonic music)
Making music at Walt Disney Concert Hall
with the LA Philharmonic is sacred to me.
I get to sit with some of the greatest musicians
in the country and present something transcendent
to an audience, almost like
I'm putting something on a pedestal.
(exciting symphonic music)
(audience cheering and applauding)
And making music in Skid Row
is actually about taking that product off the pedestal.
(soothing chamber music)
Street Symphony is an initiative
that brings live musical performances,
teaching artistry, and storytelling
to people who are impacted
by homelessness and incarceration in LA County.
It's comprised of some of the greatest musicians
living and working in Los Angeles today;
and, to date, has performed over 500 free concerts
in Skid Row clinics and shelters
as well as in all five Los Angeles County jails.
It's as much our job to play in the concert hall
as it is to play in Skid Row.
(lively chamber music)
(audience applauds and cheers)
(plaintive violin solo)
I can't talk about the origins of Street Symphony
without talking about Nathaniel Ayers,
who's a subject of a book and a movie called "The Soloist."
(plaintive violin solo)
Nathaniel was one of the first Black men
to ever study at The Julliard School.
And in his junior year, he was diagnosed
with paranoid schizophrenia, and he ended up living
in the Second Street tunnel in walking distance
of Walt Disney Concert Hall.
When I joined the LA Philharmonic,
I was asked to become Nathaniel's violin teacher.
And then eventually we started
having these lessons in Skid Row.
I started asking the questions
of how many more Nathaniels are out here?,
because every single person deserves access
to their creative and expressive life.
It's our job to show up to find who those voices are.
(plaintive violin solo)
(slow piano music)
For people who have experienced pain,
the arts are a redemptive connection
back to feeling like their stories and their lives
and their neighborhoods matter.
Every Street Symphony event has a performative aspect
but also a chance for the audiences
to tell their stories, to tell us performers
how they've received that music.
(slow symphonic music)
In that moment, I'm just a man standing there
with a violin, and all I have to offer
through that instrument is my fullest humanity.
(slow symphonic music)
(octave bell tones)