Vijay Gupta, a violinist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and a mental health advocate, spoke about his visits to marginalized communities—like homeless shelters, prisons and mental health facilities— in Graham Chapel on Tuesday.

Gupta’s work in the Los Angeles area led to his finding of Street Symphony, a group of professional musicians who devote time to bringing music to communities that otherwise do not have the means to hear it.

“It’s not for us to decide what folks need,” Gupta said. “We’ve got to work with the partners in our community to decide.”

WU Pops, Washington University’s student-only instrumental ensemble, was the catalyst for Gupta’s talk, which was organized through Student Union’s Trending Topics series. He came to discuss the connection between music and mental health and how music has the potential to serve as a medical instrument.

Gupta began the event by playing a section from a piece by Johann Sebastian Bach, which he performed in acknowledgement of the continuing efforts by those who are protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Gupta graduated from Yale University with a master’s degree in music at the age of 19 after completing an undergraduate degree in biology and auditioned for the Los Angeles Philharmonic—a position he says he never dreamed of getting. However, after a brief trial period, he became the youngest member to ever perform with the Philharmonic, and he still holds that title today at the age of 28.

While living in Los Angeles, Gupta traveled into the neighborhood of Skid Row, an area of downtown Los Angeles with high amounts of homelessness and mental health issues.

“I began to understand that there was a revolving door between being incarcerated in the Los Angeles County jails and being homeless in Skid Row because our de facto treatment of mental illness in the United States is incarceration,” Gupta said. “Our Los Angeles County jails are the largest county jail system on the planet, but they also serve as our largest mental health facilities.”

Through his work as artistic director for Street Symphony, Gupta has worked to extend the resources of the greater LA professional community to accompany his concerts. By bringing lawyers, doctors, bankers and social workers to his concerts, Gupta hopes to open up avenues for discussion about any questions his audience may have about other areas of life. Additionally, his musicians have begun to distribute “hygiene packs” containing shampoo, deodorant, razors and feminine hygiene products to those that need them.

As he continued to play at various venues in marginalized communities, Gupta noticed a change in the way he and his colleagues played.

“I actually think we play better in the context of Street Symphony,” Gupta said. “And it’s not only because of the fear of walking into an unfamiliar place, but it’s also because this audience is not judging us. That is such a powerful thing for us, as classical musicians, to feel.”

Through a question-and-answer session at the end of his talk, Gupta connected with student musicians at Washington University.

“I think it was just great to hear insight from a leading musician on ways to put music back into our communities,” senior Rohan Khazanchi said. ”Sometimes, the least glamorous way of giving back can be the one that has the highest impact.”

Throughout his talk, Gupta discussed the aspects of his career that have been affected by his heritage as a South Asian man. This, coupled with his background in both science and music, brought many students to the event.

“As someone who’s been passionate about both music and medicine, I was intrigued to see someone integrating the two in real life,” junior Rishil Mehta said. “Secondarily, I was interested in meeting the first brown professional musician I would meet in real life.”

Later, Gupta discussed the impact of Street Symphony performances on both the audience and the musicians themselves. While at first he had to bribe his fellow Philharmonic players with the promise of lunch, they later began organizing their own shows.

“We set the experience, but then we give it away to the community so that they step into their own place of agency at the show,” Gupta said.

In the future, Gupta hopes to expand his work to more cities, including St. Louis, through work with the St. Louis Symphony.