Constellations presents this event in partnership with Sound Impact. Sound Impact is a local nonprofit collective of musicians dedicated to serving communities and igniting positive change in the US and abroad through live performance, educational programs, and creative collaborations with other artists and art forms. As part of this collaboration, Vijay Gupta will be joining Sound Impact to work with incarcerated youth at the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center on October 17. You can learn more about Sound Impact and their ongoing work with incarcerated youth at https://www.soundimpact.org/incarceratedyouth.

What is music for—and what can it ask of us beyond the concert hall? Join MacArthur Fellow, violinist, author, and speaker Vijay Gupta for an intimate afternoon exploring music as a source of connection, resilience, and purpose. The youngest musician ever appointed to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gupta went on to found Street Symphony, bringing music into shelters, clinics, jails, and other communities across Los Angeles. His new memoir, Restrung, traces his own journey through achievement, burnout, service, and transformation. Joined by Danielle Cho, Assistant Principal Cellist of the Washington National Opera and director of Sound Impact, and Constellations Artistic Director Ellen Hwangbo, Gupta brings these ideas into dialogue with music itself—from the profound architecture of Bach’s C-major Sonata and a new work by Vietnamese American composer Oswald Huỳnh to the passion and sweep of Mendelssohn’s magnificent C-minor Piano Trio. Performance and conversation come together in a program asking not only how we listen to music, but how listening might change the way we encounter one another.

The $65 ticket price includes a signed copy of Vijay Gupta’s new memoir, Restrung: A Memoir of Music and Transformation. If you already own the book, please contact us to purchase a ticket without the book included!

ARTISTS

Vijay Gupta, violin and speaker
Danielle Cho, cello
Ellen Hwangbo, piano

PROGRAM

Program order subject to change.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750): Sonata No. 3 in C Major for Solo Violin, BWV 1005 (ca. 1720)
I. Adagio
II. Fuga
III. Largo
IV. Allegro assai

Oswald Huỳnh (b. 1997): for what is holy (2026)
Excerpt from a new work commissioned for Vijay Gupta

Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847): Piano Trio No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 66 (1845)
I. Allegro energico e con fuoco
II. Andante espressivo
III. Scherzo: Molto allegro quasi presto
IV. Finale: Allegro appassionato

More info here: https://www.constellationsmusic.org/event-details/music-human-connection-vijay-gupta