“Access Music may be a form of cultural outreach, but it’s a form unlike any other in Northeast Ohio,” writes Zachary Lewis in Wednesday’s (10/30) Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH). “The artists of Access Music … play and speak in homeless shelters, prisons, and halfway houses, any place where residents could use a little uplift, a few minutes of feeling welcome and valued. ‘Healing through the communal power of music,’ said Access Music co-founder Chester Englander … a lecturer in percussion at Cleveland State University… He and his wife, Rachel, a freelance violinist, did all the work of founding and launching the organization last summer, but the concept on which it’s based hails from violinist Vijay Gupta. Gupta’s ‘Street Symphony’ and other musical outlets for the homeless in Los Angeles, where the Englanders lived before moving to Cleveland, inspired the couple to fashion a similar group in Cleveland, where they saw a need … One of the first venues to recognize the value of Access Music was Joseph’s Home [which provides] housing as well as healthcare, education, and skills training to homeless men…. Already, the home has hosted Access Music three times, each time to a small but lively audience.”
Posted November 1, 2019
