Collective Effervescence

Maybe you were there that night, the night in April 2026 that Vijay Gupta first performed Samuel Barber’s ethereal Violin Concerto and then gave us the beautiful gift of an encore: a rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” I was sitting right in the middle of the orchestra (one of the reasons I really love being in the oboe section) and the moment is one of those that will stick with me forever…