More about Steve Lopez and The Soloist

There are some things that Steve Lopez said to me about his book "The Soloist" that are just rattling around in my head - and I can't stop thinking about them. We talked about his book, sure, but also how meeting Nathaniel Ayers - a former Julliard student playing a 2-string violin on skid row in downtown L.A. - changed his life.

One of the profound things he said was that for Nathaniel, art and music were his therapeutic force - a way for him, a person struggling with mental illness, to find peace. Since Steve met Nathaniel and started writing columns about him and then the book, they have become close friends - friends who go to the Los Angeles Philharmonic together. The musicians in the orchestra have become friends of Nathaniel too....as Steve said about Nathaniel, "Music is his medicine, Disney Hall is his hospital and his friends in the orchestra are his doctors".

Do you have something that gives you peace? Art? Being outside? Being creative in some way?
Tune in for our conversation tonight - or check the archives.....See Steve Lopez's LA Times articles on Nathaniel here.