By Milena Fernsler
In the small, dimly-lit community center turned chamber hall on 74 Joy St., Jennifer Stevens is brought back to her grandparents’ living room. There, she would watch the piano strings dance as her great uncle played. Sometimes she sat beneath the baby grand, enveloped in the amplified acoustics of the instrument’s underbelly.
“That was my playground,” she said.
The benefit concert held on Oct. 15 for Shelter Music Boston, performed by the organization’s artistic director and internationally-acclaimed violinist, Adrian Anantawan, aimed to provide Stevens’ experience to the thousands of homeless people living just outside the cozy confines of Beacon Hill.
More than 5,500 people live without shelter in Boston, according to the 2025 U.S. census.
“For many people, connecting them to music, particularly classical music, brings them back to a simpler time, when life was less complicated,” said Mark Lippolt, who works for the organization’s development committee.
Now celebrating its 15th anniversary, Shelter Music Boston will perform more than 100 free concerts this year at shelters for homeless people, those recovering from substance abuse, or fleeing domestic violence.
“Classical music unfortunately can be seen as something that’s very ivory tower, and only for people who can afford it,” said violinist Anantawan, who was born without a right hand. Whether life’s challenges stem from a disability or other circumstances, the Canadian musician says the stigma is the same.
“That’s always been a big mission for me,” Anantawan said, “to be able to find ways that this particular art form can be accessible and inclusive for as many people as possible, and to try to remove the stigma of what or who this music is for.”
At 10 years old, Anantawan’s elementary school required students to pick up the recorder. With only five fingers, that simply wasn’t an option, and he and his parents began searching for a more suitable instrument. Anantawan found his calling on a Sesame Street episode featuring violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman. It was the first time the aspiring musician saw someone on TV who somewhat resembled him.
“He had polio, a disability as well, but played the instrument beautifully,” Anantawan said. He told his parents he’d made his choice.
With the aid of a prosthetic adapted to hold his bow, Anantawan has now played all around the world, from the White House to the Athens and Vancouver Olympics. He has performed for Pope John Paul II, the late Christopher Reeve and the Dalai Lama.
Amidst his piling accolades, Anantawan partnered with a hospital and after-school program to make chamber music accessible to children with disabilities. Now he says he hopes to bring his local, disadvantaged community the same sense of fulfillment he found through the violin.
When Shelter Music Boston plays for homeless communities, Anantawan said musicians are not only performing, they are pronouncing the audience worthy of beautiful music.
The night of the concert in Beacon Hill, Anantawan and his piano accompanist, Jennifer Hsiao, played a lullaby by the Indian American composer, Reena Esmail. Some audience members closed their eyes, others swayed to the melody. When the song ended, Anantawan opened the floor to a discussion, and attendees shared feelings evoked by the performance.
In a neighborhood where the average home value exceeds $1 million, Anantawan said that night’s conversation reminded him of audience reactions at shelters.
“All of us come from a parent or a family, and our hope is that the music that we continue to play really resonates with you as much as someone in a shelter,” Anantawan said to the audience.
Even though classical music was first composed for kings and queens, he said, “they were getting at very human elements that can be accessible to any of us.”
Anantawan said he hopes the opportunities afforded by affluence isn’t lost on Beacon Hill’s residents. “What do we do to be able to make sense of that privilege?” he asks. “And what do you do as responsible members of the community to be able to uplift and to see all people as whole people?”
The evening closed with a three-part sonata by the French composer Claude Debussy, a piece that blends a disparate array of styles and techniques. The bow drew out the ethereal first act, abruptly followed by the sinister, dance-like rhythms of the second. The violinist and accompanist suspend the musical tension for more than 10 minutes before taking a breath in sync, releasing the final act’s rapid triumph.
“You’re really getting a sense of the work that we do here,” Antawan said, addressing the audience. “Which is, essentially, the human universal work of just making spaces beautiful and making our worlds as beautiful as we can through this power of art and music.”
Milena Fernsler is a student in the Boston University Journalism program. This story is a partnership between Beacon Hill Times and the Boston University Journalism program.