美国国家公共电台 NPR--Street Symphony plays in harmony with Skid Row's 'sacred spaces'

Street Symphony plays in harmony with Skid¹ Row's 'sacred spaces'

Transcript²

Some of the most beautiful music being performed in Los Angeles right now is happening on Skid Row. Street Symphony is an organization bringing professional musicians to clinics, homeless shelters and jails clustered in and around one of the most devastating³ concentrations of urban poverty in the United States.

"Street Symphony started out of both curiosity and recognition," said founder⁴ Vijay Gupta. He first became aware of Skid Row after joining the LA Philharmonic as a 19-year-old violin prodigy⁵. The orchestra's dazzling steel-clad concert hall is located about a mile and a half away.

Gupta was shocked by the poverty and neglect he saw on Skid Row. The injustice⁶ and inequity upset him. He was also disturbed by what he saw as the airless insularity⁷ of the classical music world.

A few weeks before an upcoming concert, Gupta sat outside the Midnight Mission on a circular concrete bench, behind a security gate that separated clients and staff from a community of people living in tents and sleeping on the sidewalks outside.

"This is a 12-step recovery shelter," Gupta said. "And one of the things I've learned from being here for 10 years making music is that we're all in recovery from something."

As a child, Gupta said he experienced tremendous pain and trauma⁸. He was for a while able to compartmentalize that pain while achieving dizzying heights as a musician.

"When I saw Skid Row for the first time I felt like a hypocrite," he said. "I felt that there was more to my life as a person, as an artist, as someone who could belong to the wider fabric⁹ of this new city than only being on the stage of a hall where I came alive. And so I kind of came to Skid Row for myself. I came to Skid Row to understand what my own shadow was."

Gupta came up with the idea of Street Symphony as a healing balm, a bridge between two divergent worlds. At first, he said, higher-ups at the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health were skeptical¹⁰ of the project. He found support from social workers.

"It's like, here are these classical musicians, but they genuinely cared," said Luis Garcia, who is now on Street Symphony's board. He was counseling mentally ill parolees on Skid Row when he first met Gupta. Garcia found himself impressed by an organization that did more than drop-in, play a little music, then leave. "It's not like they're outsiders. They're like, integral to the community," he said.

A recent Street Symphony performance at the Midnight Mission included a world-class singer interpreting Bach's glorious "Cantata¹¹ No. 82." The music is based on a Biblical story. An aged¹² holy man is given the chance to cradle the Christ child in his arms, and the experience fills him with bliss¹³. He announced, "I have enough" – in German, "Ich habe genug"-- meaning, he's ready to die in a state of spiritual grace.

Also on stage was a storyteller: 75-year-old Linda Leigh, a longtime Skid Row resident. She told a rapt audience about getting a key to her very own room after having been on the streets, and how moved she was to find two chocolates awaiting on her bed. "I felt like someone had given me grace," she said. "And that was enough."

"This work has taught me to expect miracles," said Gupta. "Every single person who lives here at the Midnight Mission is a miracle for the fact that they're still drawing breath. And I would actually say that every single one of us has our own miraculous¹⁴ story that we can only truly find when that story happens in service to someone else."

1 skid   

v.打滑 n.滑向一侧；滑道 ，滑轨

参考例句：

• He braked suddenly,causing the front wheels to skid.他突然剎车，使得前轮打了滑。
• The police examined the skid marks to see how fast the car had been travelling.警察检查了车轮滑行痕迹，以判断汽车当时开得有多快。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

4 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

5 prodigy   

n.惊人的事物，奇迹，神童，天才，预兆

参考例句：

• She was a child prodigy on the violin.她是神童小提琴手。
• He was always a Negro prodigy who played barbarously and wonderfully.他始终是一个黑人的奇才，这种奇才弹奏起来粗野而惊人。

6 injustice   

n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利

参考例句：

• They complained of injustice in the way they had been treated.他们抱怨受到不公平的对待。
• All his life he has been struggling against injustice.他一生都在与不公正现象作斗争。

7 insularity   

n.心胸狭窄；孤立；偏狭；岛国根性

参考例句：

• But at least they have started to break out of their old insularity.但是他们至少已经开始打破过去孤立保守的心态。
• It was a typical case of British chauvinism and insularity.这是典型的英国沙文主义和偏狭心理的事例。

8 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

9 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。

10 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

11 cantata   

n.清唱剧，大合唱

参考例句：

• The music of the song has been rearranged for the cantata.这支歌改编已成大合唱。
• The choral society sang the new cantata composed by its leader.该合唱队演唱了他们领队编写的大合唱。

12 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

13 bliss   

n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福

参考例句：

• It's sheer bliss to be able to spend the day in bed.整天都可以躺在床上真是幸福。
• He's in bliss that he's won the Nobel Prize.他非常高兴，因为获得了诺贝尔奖金。

14 miraculous   

adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的

参考例句：

• The wounded man made a miraculous recovery.伤员奇迹般地痊愈了。
• They won a miraculous victory over much stronger enemy.他们战胜了远比自己强大的敌人，赢得了非凡的胜利。