Vijay Gupta is an acclaimed violinist and inspired storyteller who explores the human condition through music.

Vijay has had many chapters to his career: as a child prodigy, he debuted Carnegie Hall at age 8, made his international solo debut with the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta at age 11, and became the youngest violinist ever to join the Los Angeles Philharmonic at age 19.

In 2011, Gupta founded  Street Symphony, the nonprofit that brings live music into shelters, clinics, county jails, state hospitals, and reentry programs across Los Angeles. Over fifteen years, Street Symphony has delivered more than 3,000 performances and workshops. The New Yorker called it "a formidable new model for how musical institutions should engage with the world around them." In 2018, Vijay received the MacArthur Fellowship and was listed on TIME's 100 Next list.

In addition to his work with Street Symphony, Gupta performs as a soloist and as a founding member of the Darshan Piano Trio. He holds degrees in biology and violin performance and completed graduate study at the Yale School of Music. His three TED Talks have reached millions of viewers. As a speaker represented by the Lavin Agency, he has addressed audiences at the Aspen Institute, Mayo Clinic, Harvard Business School, the American Medical Association, and the U.S. Psychiatric Congress, among others.

Vijay’s new memoir Restrung tells his story from his earliest memories, to his burnout and collapse of being a classical musician, to transformation through music. It was published by Grand Central / Da Capo on June 9, 2026. The Los Angeles Times has called his playing "brilliant, bold and gripping," and Publishers Weekly writes that his memoir Restrung illustrates how music "reaches the broken places within us and the broken places between us" — "a virtuoso performance."

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