The Disney Music Hall

Yesterday, I joined my photography club, Photographers and Digital Artist of Los Angeles along with Skid Row Photography on a tour of the Disney Music Hall. I have always been impressed with this building designed by Frank Gehry, but the inside is not as impressive as the outside, although still quite beautiful. We were not allowed to enter any of the auditoriums, a treat that could have possibly changed my mind.
It was a great deal of fun meeting a lot of these people for the first time, other photographers, with various backgrounds, ages, and skill levels; but the highlight of my day was meeting Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, the promising classical bass player at the renowned Juliard School of the performing arts in New York City, who had lost his way because of schizophrenia. He is the subject of the recent movie, " The Soloist", played by Jamie Foxx. I thought Nathaniel was just in the area, but he was actually apart of the Skid Row Photography Club. He was somewhat reserved, but friendly, and quite gracious.



While reading the book about his life, I had thoughts of whether I had ever seen this man on the streets of LA, but I knew that I had never seen him playing music on the streets. I wanted to put the face of this man with his story. Just last week while in the city I picked up a weekly paper in downtown Los Angeles and there was a picture of him with a lady that was also said to had been in the movie, also a resident of skid row, so now I had a face. When he approached the group yesterday I immediately recognized him and started to tell others who he was, but they didn't know him by his name, but was familiar with the movie. That is when he was introduced to us and he shook hands with all of us in the group and we all took pictures of him and with him.
It was not just meeting the man that the movie was about but it was meeting the man that lived this incredible story.

Yes there are pictures to follow and they will be along soon.

Below is a piece that I found on You tube with Steve Lopez and Nathaniel Ayers.