Street Symphony is a collective of musical humanitarians, dedicated to bringing the healing presence of great music to people living in extreme poverty and disenfranchisement. Since 2011, Street Symphony has performed 160 free, on-site events at homeless shelters, VA's, and County Jails in Los Angeles. Our musicians are some of the best in Los Angeles - members of the LA Phil, singers from the LA Master Chorale, and jazz musicians like Putter Smith (who used to play for Thelonius Monk and Duke Ellington). WIth the great music comes a deeply genuine, profound human connection with people who have been criminalized, ostracized and largely forgotten by our world.

At the core, Street Symphony is an act of human service. Street Symphony is more than powerful, beautiful music – it’s an invitation for human connection for those who live on the fringes of our society. Music reminds us all that we still have the capacity to experience something beautiful, and for those who live in the most dehumanized conditions, this can be the beginning of hope. Each Street Symphony event is a dialogue with audience members in the context of a safe, vulnerable space created through music.

Street Symphony is a call to action, a call to awareness. We want it to become a vehicle for activism and change - to give voice to marginalized, estranged people who are a very real part of our world. We want Street Symphony to become a bridge to connect deeply caring musicians to the source of their gift - the power to communicate a message of real healing in a world filled with pain. We find that we need this message as much as any of our audiences, that society itself needs this message. In that way, we find ourselves healed by the work of Street Symphony. We want to heal the world.

We made the front page of the LA Times California Section in this article by Steve Lopez last month: http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-1123-lopez-gupta-20141123-column.html