[Propertalk] Last Epiphany b 2018 - part 2 of 3

[Robert P Morrison]

	Part 2

	Kelly Hall-Tompkins is a New York-based violinist who, in 2004, was
struggling to come to terms with the death of a close friend and the
way that this took the charm and beauty out of her life.

	 “In need of company, she took to a shelter near Lincoln Center and
began making her way through Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4 in D
Major. Twelve people listened to the same notes she would soon play
before an audience of 1,000. Some tapped their feet, laughed or
smiled. Others, who told the violinist they had never heard classical
music before, cried.

	 “‘You can reach people in this situation on a deeper level,
sometimes, than ticket-buying audiences,’ Ms. Hall-Tompkins said.
‘Of course, the nature of my career is playing concerts for
ticket-buying audiences, but there’s something more profound
reaching people with these pieces at this time in their lives.’

	 “The next year, Ms. Hall-Tompkins founded Music Kitchen — Food
for the Soul [1], a program that lifts the spirits of homeless New
Yorkers through live classical music recitals [2]. The intimate
performances, which take place not on celebrated stages but in worn
community rooms of shelters, have become a therapy of sorts for those
who listen.

	 “‘It’s a teeny-tiny program, but it’s been doing very
impactful things,’ said Ms. Hall-Tompkins, who has since inspired
nearly 200 chamber musicians, including Emanuel Ax [3], to join her
for Music Kitchen performances in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Los Angeles and
Paris. ‘It’s hard now to see where my career ends and Music
Kitchen begins.’

	 “She has transformed the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen [4] in Chelsea
into a 19th-century concert hall with Brahms. During one performance
of his sextet in G Major, ‘they were cheering like it was a sports
game,’ Ms. Hall-Tompkins said of the roughly 1,000 people in the
room. ’By the time we actually reached the end, they cheered like it
was the winning point at the Super Bowl, and it was incredible.’”
3

	 Of course, everyone there needed to be fed, needed something warm,
to eat, someone beside who to sit, and to laugh and to cry. But it
seems that few, if anyone, had thought about moving beyond that, had
thought of Jesus, in all His Glory, reaching down to anoint the
cowherd and bless the cow.

	 Just how DOES Jesus’ Glory transfigure our lives, the lives of
those who may never come into a church building except to find
someplace warm, someplace to eat, someplace to cry?

	 “Homeless adults,” Kelly recognised, “are an underserved
audience, she added. ‘A lot of programs we have cater to children
— they’re still coming up and there’s still hope for them —
but there’s a bleakness and a sense of hopelessness that sometimes
people take on in the shelter’ as adults, Ms. Hall-Tompkins said.
‘It’s really important that they have the opportunity to be so
moved.’”



Links:
------
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6x1HV0EoAM&feature=youtu.be
[2] http://www.musickitchennyc.org/
[3]
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/01/arts/music/review-a-stirring-premiere-at-the-philharmonic-with-perfect-timing.html
[4] http://holyapostlessoupkitchen.org/

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