How many times have you passed someone on the street only to turn the other way? Would it make a difference if you knew that the person lying on the ground was once a hugely gifted musician who had attended the famed Julliard School of Music on a scholarship? The same school attended by the brilliantly gifted Yo-Yo Ma. Our latest Pete & Brenda Third Thursday Book Club meeting was a discussion of "The Soloist," written by Steve Lopez based on a series of columns he wrote for the LA Times about Nathaniel Ayers, a gifted musician who is homeless and mentally ill (and currently a movie starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx). Nathaniel's brilliant career was cut short when he began to break down while attending Julliard and was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. As I read the story of Nathaniel Ayers I wondered what might have been and was drawn to his love of music and Beethoven. Immediately after our book club meeting I headed over to the music department at Barnes & Noble and purchased "The Soloist" soundtrack as well as Beethoven's Eighth Symphony and Symphony No. 6 known as the "Pastoral" Symphony. It has been said that the Sixth Symphony is "more an expression of feeling than painting in sound." After I listened it was clear why Beethoven was Nathaniel Ayer's muse and medicine and for a brief moment I had some sense of where Mr. Ayers travels when he closes his eyes and plays. Thank you Steve Lopez for reserving us a front row seat at this symphony in the big city. It was both eye-opening and heartbreaking, a score of stunning human crescendo and stark morendo, blowing the doors wide open on the stigmas and misconceptions associated with mental illness and homelessness. We are glad that Nathaniel Ayers is no longer in the shadows and that he has found a community of musicians, friends, and fans who understand him, respect him, and care for him.
