Internationally celebrated musician, speaker and author Vijay Gupta will headline East Tennessee State University’s 2026 Festival of Ideas with a public presentation combining music and conversation on Tuesday, Feb. 24, at 7 p.m. at the ETSU Martin Center for the Arts.

Gupta’s presentation is titled “Why Music Education is Essential.”

Admission to the event will be free, but tickets will be required. Tickets to Gupta’s presentation and the previously announced Festival of Ideas evening with best-selling author John Green on Feb. 26 will be available to the ETSU community on Jan. 28 and to the general public on Jan. 29.

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.

Through this work, he has forged spaces of dignity and belonging for individuals recovering from homelessness, addiction and incarceration.

“We are thrilled to welcome Vijay Gupta to this year’s Festival of Ideas,” said Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle, ETSU provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs. “His work sits at the intersection of the power of the arts, innovation, global problem-solving and community impact — exactly the kind of meaningful conversations that the festival is designed to showcase.”

Gupta’s forthcoming book, “Restrung” — now available for pre-order—examines the role of the arts to heal, inspire and create spaces of shared dialogue. His work has been featured by the American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Congress, Hallmark, and the Richmond Forum, among many others.

A member of the first violin section of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 12 years, Gupta has appeared around the world as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. He is a founding member of the Darshan Piano Trio and Tesserae Baroque, and his recordings span repertoire from Bach to contemporary works.