Tuesday, June 9, 2026 | 7:00pm PT
Restrung: A Story of Music and Transformation
Vijay Gupta
Registration Now Open
Attendance is Complimentary. Registration is Required.
For Vijay Gupta, music was never just performance. It became a way to survive, a way to make sense of pain, identity, and human connection.
In this Spark Salon, Gupta shares the story behind his new memoir, Restrung, a deeply personal account of ambition, collapse, addiction, and rebuilding a life beyond achievement. By 25, he had already performed at Carnegie Hall, trained at Juilliard and Yale, and joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic. But beneath the success was a growing disconnection from himself and the people around him.
What followed reshaped not only his life but his understanding of music itself. Through his work in shelters, clinics, and community spaces across Los Angeles, Gupta began to experience music less as something to perfect and more as a way of listening, connecting, and being fully present with others.
Blending reflection, conversation, and a live performance with Street Symphony, this evening explores what happens when familiar definitions of success fall apart and a new sense of meaning begins to emerge. Gupta reflects on identity, perfectionism, addiction, belonging, and the transformative power of learning to listen differently—to ourselves and to one another.
All in-person attendees will receive a complimentary copy of Restrung: A Memoir of Music and Transformation, releasing June 9.
6:00 p.m.: Doors open, reception
7:00 p.m.: Program begins promptly
8:00 p.m.: Book signing and reception
In-person attendees will receive a complimentary book.
Bio
Described by The New Yorker as “a visionary violinist and a radical thinker in the classical music world,” Vijay Gupta is a violinist, speaker, founder of Street Symphony, and author of the memoir Restrung: A Memoir of Music and Transformation.
A member of the first violin section of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 12 years, Gupta has performed internationally as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, with recordings spanning Bach to contemporary composers. But over time, his relationship to music evolved beyond performance and achievement toward something more deeply human: connection, presence, and healing.
In 2011, Gupta founded Street Symphony, a Los Angeles–based nonprofit that brings music and community-building programs into shelters, clinics, county jails, prisons, and reentry spaces across Los Angeles. Through this work, he has explored how music can create moments of dignity, belonging, and transformation for people navigating homelessness, addiction, incarceration, and profound loss.
A dynamic communicator and advocate for the role of art in human flourishing, Gupta has delivered three widely viewed TED Talks and spoken at organizations including Aspen Institute, the American Medical Association, the Mayo Clinic, and the U.S. Psychiatric and Mental Health Congress. In 2024, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
His memoir, Restrung, traces his journey through ambition, addiction, identity, collapse, and renewal, exploring how music transformed from a source of performance into a path toward connection, meaning, and rebuilding a sense of self.
Restrung: A Memoir of Music and Transformation
Available June 9: