You are probably well aware of my colleague Adam Crane's friendship with Nathaniel Ayers. Mr.
Ayers was the subject of Steve Lopez's
book The Soloist, with was made into
a film of the same name starring
Jaime Foxx and Robert Downey, Jr. One of the
things that I find so amazing about Mr. Ayers' story is how it continues to affect
so many people's lives.
Nathaniel Ayers' story in brief: While studying double bass
at Juilliard in the early 1970s, he
became afflicted with paranoid schizophrenia, was institutionalized for a time,
and came to live a life on the
streets. LA Times columnist Steve
Lopez met Mr. Ayers playing a two-string violin on the LA streets when the
journalist was out in search of some subject matter one day in 2005. In the course of their
relationship, Mr. Lopez brought Mr. Ayers to a rehearsal of the LA Phil at Disney Hall, with Mr. Crane serving
as host. (Mr. Ayers calls all the
men he meets "Mr.") Mr. Ayers has since renewed a relationship with his sister,
and has his own apartment in a shelter in LA. He now plays any number of
instruments, many of them gifts from
people who read about him in Mr. Lopez's LA
Times columns. Since returning to his hometown, St. Louis, Mr. Crane still talks to Mr. Ayers
on a regular basis via cell phone.
Mr. Crane is now on the
board of the local chapter of NAMI (National
Alliance on Mental Illness). Today Mr. Crane invited me to join him for a tour
and lunch at Places for People, which provides care, counseling, assistance and
hope to the mentally ill who walk among
us in St. Louis.
While we were there, Percy played
piano for us, both his own compositions as well as popular tunes such as "The
Rose." One man recommended a concert program made up of music from films about
cars ("Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" was one of the
songs). And I met a man whose grandfather
played violin with the SLSO a long
time ago. As luck would have it, I found the
name in our bound volumes of past programs, in the
first violins on the 1919-20 roster,
when Max Zach was music director.
We had a wonderful time with some inspiring people, people
who work very hard to get through a day against great challenges. And I
probably wouldn't have had the
chance to have met them without the influence of Mr. Ayers. (And more direct thanks to my friend and colleague Mr. Adam Crane.)
