Thanks to Shelter Music Boston, live classical music isn’t just being performed in Massachusetts’ grand halls: talented performers also play in Greater Boston’s homeless shelters and addiction recovery centers.
"We are professional musicians, so we only deliver the highest-quality music to these spaces," said Adrian Anantawan, the organization's artistic director, on Boston Public Radio Friday. Shelter Music Boston conducts dozens of performances each year.
One of the places they play is HRI, or Homeowners Rehab Inc, based out of Cambridge. Jesse Edsell-Vetter, the organization’s director of resident services, told Boston Public Radio that HRI provides affordable housing to Greater Boston. It currently has over 1,700 units under its ownership and gives its residents access to youth development, health and wellness programs, and other beneficial programs.
The two organizations first started partnering during the pandemic.
"It was a time where our residents were really afraid to come out, even masked," Edsell-Vetter said. "And the musicians would set up in the courtyard. And we would have residents messaging us to say, 'I'm listening from my window. I got a special coffee today. I've been waiting all week.'"
Edsell-Vetter explained that many of HRI's residents don't have the opportunity to go to venues like Symphony Hall to see a classical performance.
"It's really an opportunity to bring the arts to them," she said.
Anantawan, who also plays the violin, added that Shelter Music Boston doesn't merely provide value to audiences. It's also to the musicians — in large part thanks to the intimacy of the performances.
"We learn so much from our audiences. I think it really gives us meaning. Because a lot of the times we're in spaces that we feel a little bit disconnected from the audience," he said, citing massive venues like Symphony Hall. "But when we're in these shelters ... we have an amazing connection to everyone live. We do a lot of question and answer, a lot of comments, a lot of curiosities — and it allows us to really feel personal in the way that we continue to play our music."
A quartet of Shelter Music Boston players also performed two compositions on string quartet — the original ’80s hit “Eye of the Tiger,” and then a piece inspired by the same song, “Tiger Eye.”
Francine Trester, the piece’s composer and a professor at the Berklee College of Music, told Boston Public Radio that it uses elements from "Eye of the Tiger" — but it's not an arrangement.
"It's kind of like if you were experiencing 'Eye of the Tiger' through a dream," Trester said. "The whole project is really a beautiful one, where the Shelter Music audience feels vested. It was their choices as to what would be treated in a new way, and then to give it a new spin."
“Tiger Eye” will be performed at September's Song of Life public concert on Wednesday, Sept. 27. The free performance is themed around four emotions — peace, hope, sadness and joy — with the new version of “Eye of the Tiger” slotting into the section on hope.
WATCH: Anantawan, cellist Elizabeth Cook, violinist Amy Sims, and violist Rebecca Strauss perform “Tiger Eye” by composer Trester
