Arts, Etc.Music

Violinist accents musical journey

Vijay Gupta (violin) and assistant professor of music Grace Zhao (piano) warms up in Morgan Auditorium before an informal performance May 1. Gupta earned his master’s degree in music from Yale at age 19, then joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Since then he has founded a nonprofit performing group called Street Symphony. He was also a TED speaker. In January he was presented with the honorary doctorate of humane letters by the University of La Verne. He opened Friday’s concert with Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Gavotte en rondeau” of Violin Partita No. 3. / photo by Alexandra Arkley
Vijay Gupta (violin) and assistant professor of music Grace Zhao (piano) warms up in Morgan Auditorium before an informal performance May 1. Gupta earned his master’s degree in music from Yale at age 19, then joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Since then he has founded a nonprofit performing group called Street Symphony. He was also a TED speaker. In January he was presented with the honorary doctorate of humane letters by the University of La Verne. He opened Friday’s concert with Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Gavotte en rondeau” of Violin Partita No. 3. / photo by Alexandra Arkley

Kristina Bugante
Editorial Director

Vijay Gupta, violinist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, performed and talked about his lifelong musical experience as a part of the University of La Verne Music Department’s “Fridays at Noon” concert series May 1 in Morgan Auditorium.

Gupta received an honorary doctorate from ULV in January during winter commencement and was the College of Arts and Sciences’ keynote speaker.

“It’s more about a journey, a shared experience about music,” Grace Zhao, artist in residence and assistant professor of music, said about the event.

Gupta emphasized a journey metaphor that related to each piece he performed.

He opened with the third movement “Gavotte en rondeau” of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Violin Partita No. 3 in E major.

Gupta described the piece’s returning melody as bittersweet — it is happy and spritely, yet “a tiny bit sad.”

Alongside Zhao on the piano, Gupta tackled French composer Cesar Franck’s fourth and last movement of his Sonata in A major.

Gupta described the piece’s piano and violin collaboration as “follow the leader.”

Whatever Zhao played on the piano, Gupta immediately imitated with his violin.

“Not bad after one 20-minute rehearsal,” Gupta noted after the piece ended, eliciting laughter from the audience.

Afterward Gupta slowed things down with the last movement from Bohemian-Austrian composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber’s “Mystery Sonatas.”

“Biber was a bit of a demonic figure in violin performance and music,” Gupta said. “He experimented with aspects of violin performance that had never been done before.”

Biber liked changing the tuning of the violin’s strings, which ultimately changed the vibrations and then the color of the instrument.

The “Mystery Sonatas,” also known as the “Rosary Sonatas,” relate to the 15 mysteries of the Rosary. Gupta played the “Passacaglia,” the 16th and final movement of the sonatas, which uses a similar bass pattern of a hymn to the Guardian Angel.

“It’s a kind of musical meditation,” Gupta said of the pattern heard continuously throughout the piece.

“In a way it’s also spiritual, because these four notes are a hymn that was famous in Austria during that time.”

After the performance portion of the concert Zhao opened a dialogue with Gupta by asking him how he started his musical experience.

At 4 years old, Gupta learned how to play the violin through the Suzuki method, which suggests that a child should learn music just like they learn a native language.

Gupta was set on becoming a doctor when he enrolled in college as a young preteen, but much to his parents’ dismay, he studied music alongside science.

“I could say more through music than I could through words,” he said.

Gupta received his bachelor’s degree in biology from Marist College at 17 years old. After graduating with his master’s in music from Yale University at 19 years old, he joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2007.

Gupta is also the artistic director and violinist for Street Symphony, a non-profit organization that provides free, live musical performances and experiences to homeless and incarcerated men, women and youth of Los Angeles County.

Through Street Symphony he also advocates awareness of issues that affect these disadvantaged groups, such as mental health.

Jasmyn McWells, sophomore psychology major, said she is interested in learning how music impacts those who are mentally ill.

“It really fascinated me that he studied neurology,” she said. “It’s interesting how music has such a huge impact on the brain. I don’t think many people really understand that. It really changes people emotionally, their behaviors and sometimes physically.”

Gupta concluded the concert with another piece from Bach, “Sarabande” in D minor, which Gupta said was outlawed for a while because it was “too saucy.”

Kristina Bugante can be reached at kristina.bugante@laverne.edu.

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