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The Lavin Agency Speakers Bureau

A speakers bureau that represents the best original thinkers,
writers, and doers for speaking engagements.

Vijay Gupta

Music speaks to people—touches people—in ways words alone cannot.

Violinist | Artistic Director | Founder, Street Symphony | Author, Restrung (Grand Central Publishing, 2026)

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How a Friendship Based on Music Became a Space of Healing (3:20)

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Music Can Reveal Our Shared Humanity (3:21)

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How Music Can Bring Us Together (1:59)

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The Scientific Ways That Music Is Medicine (3:25)

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How Can Music Act as Medicine?

Lavin Exclusive Speaker

Music isn’t a form of entertainment. It’s a lifeline. For Vijay Gupta, all art is a kind of soul-metabolism: a way of transforming pain, grief and trauma into something which nourishes. Described by The New Yorker as “a visionary violinist and a radical thinker in the classical music world,” Vijay is an internationally celebrated musician, speaker, and advocate who bridges the worlds of art, justice, and healing. In hopeful, inspiring talks, he shows us creative ways to revitalize our sense of hope and belonging.

“A master of music and medicine.”— The TODAY Show

Vijay Gupta is the founder and Artistic Director of Street Symphony, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that has presented thousands of musical workshops and performances in shelters, county jails, state hospitals, and prisons—creating spaces of connection for people in reentry from homelessness, addiction, and incarceration. For Vijay, music is not entertainment. It’s a lifeline, a way to process pain, reclaim dignity, and transform grief into belonging.

A member of the first violin section of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 12 years, Vijay has performed globally as a recitalist, soloist, and chamber musician and is a founding member of the Darshan Piano Trio and Tesserae Baroque. His recordings span repertoire from Bach to contemporary composers, and in 2024, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Vijay is a dynamic communicator whose three TED talks have garnered millions of views. He has delivered keynote addresses for the American Medical Association, The Richmond Forum, The Aspen Institute, Hallmark, Accenture, the Mayo Clinic, the U.S. Psychiatric Congress, and the League of American Orchestras. In 2026, Grand Central Publishing will release his memoir Restrung, exploring loss, resilience, and the power of music to transform the human spirit.

Testimonials

Wonderful! Moving, evocative, thought-provoking, inspirational. It is this kind of presentation that moves people to action.

British Columbia Non-Profit Housing Association

Testimonials

Vijay had a large portion of the attendees in tears because of his own vulnerability, and everyone I’ve spoken with was really moved by his keynote. The way he wove the violin in was wonderful as well—that was definitely a special treat for us all. It was great for the group to hear that anyone can make a difference, but it needs to start with us. Thank you for helping to arrange the contract with Vijay—it was really special to have him as a part of our event.

International Interior Design Association, San Francisco Chapter

Testimonials

Vijay was a sheer delight. He was not only an incredible storyteller/entertainer/inspiration, he was flexible and easy to work with. I don’t know how to talk about his joining the Nashville Symphony and becoming a part of our community here, but I’m scheming about it!

Porters Call

Testimonials

[We were so thrilled to] meet the amazingly talented, delightful, and inspirational Vijay Gupta. I have already had emails from Texas Tech Music faculty thanking me for the wonderful evening. One man told me last night that it was the best event he had ever attended on the Tech campus. We over-use the word “brilliant” nowadays, but in Vijay’s case, it fits. Thank you!

Texas Tech University

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Derek Thompson

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Clint Smith

#1 New York Times Bestselling Author of How the Word Is Passed and Above Ground | The Atlantic Staff Writer

Speech Topics

Corporate Culture

The Artist’s WayBuilding a Creative Workplace in a Post-Covid World

Despite the chaos and turmoil of 2020, it offered us a much-needed invitation to reflect on the kind of world we want to live in. We’ve seen a reevaluation of what is essential in our societies; a renewed discovery of the value of deep, creative work; and a greater appreciation balancing solitude and our connection with the world. Businesses, too, have been offered a chance to rethink not only how they operate, but how they can connect with their employees in a more meaningful way. Helping them reimagine everything from leadership to creativity, are artists like Vijay Gupta.

In his powerful and eye-opening talk, Vijay—a world-renowned violinist—applies his experience in musical performance, education, and community engagement, including 10+ years of managing his non-profit Street Symphony, to the corporate world. His unique background helps leaders, managers, and executives at all levels answer some of their most burning questions. How can we transition from a top-down model of leadership, into one that follows the artistic tradition of decentralization and collaboration? How can we continue to seek excellence and achievement in our work without losing sight of our greater purpose? And how can we create spaces of belonging in the workplace, allowing people to show up as their most authentic selves?

Complete with a musical Q&A session, this one-of-a-kind talk shows leaders how they can build the type of trust that allows creativity and innovation to emerge.

Activism & Humanitarianism

Heal Yourself, Change the WorldA Musical Conversation with Vijay Gupta

Through grief, loss, and collective trauma—how do we begin to heal ourselves and create the post-COVID world? For celebrated violinist and social justice advocate Vijay Gupta, the answer unsurprisingly begins with music. At his nonprofit Street Symphony, Vijay uses music to show us the power we have to heal ourselves, inspire others, and provoke meaningful change. And by moving away from a hierarchical “outreach” model, and into one of collaboration and engagement, he helps facilitate experiences of mutual reciprocity, wholeness, and belonging.

Today, Vijay works tirelessly to inspire citizen artistry across America and around the world. This spontaneous and engaging talk not only offers a real-time musical exploration with Gupta, but the building blocks for transforming our own communities—gleaned from years of on-the-ground experience working with some of societies’ most vulnerable populations. Change starts small, says Vijay. It can begin with something as simple as a daily artistic practice, a creative habit. But over time, that small commitment to our creativity will blossom and ripple through our communities in a way that connects us to our greater humanity.

As Vijay says, “With every breath, every brush stroke, every word, every note, we cast a vote for the future we want to create.” Compassionate and courageous, this talk is essential listening as we begin to build the new world we want to live in.

Mental Health and Fitness

The Medicine of Music

In this talk, Vijay Gupta explores the connection between music and mental health, explaining why music’s redemptive power may hold more potential than we realize. Vijay draws from his work as director of Street Symphony—a musical engagement non-profit—to illustrate how music can help bring people back from the brink of their darkest times. How does music speak to people in ways language cannot? Why is music education vitally important, especially to those who are most in need? Erudite, eloquent, and passionate, Vijay shows audiences that music isn’t just something to be enjoyed—it’s something that can change lives.

Grit at School

Why Music Education is Essential

Vijay Gupta believes strongly that music should be a fundamental element in an educational curriculum, beyond an extracurricular hobby or even a medium to facilitate instruction in other fields, such as math or science. In this talk, he shares his personal journey in music education, tying in his experiences as a young musician struggling to find the meaning in music with the lack of programs and support, as well as the stigma he faced at choosing between a career as a “responsible person” in science and a career in his life’s passion, music. That stigma still exists around music and the arts. Vijay believes music educators are true pioneers in the kind of human education that will shape the kind of empathic and compassionate socially connected lives that our world demands of our young people. Music gives us these human tools, says Vijay—the relational discipline grounded in passion that truly can affect change in the world around us.