Nathaniel Ayers

Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, Jr. (born January 31, 1951) is an American musician. He is the subject of numerous newspaper columns, a book, and a 2009 film adaptation based on the columns. A foundation bearing his name was started in 2008 with an aim to support artistically gifted people with mental illness.

School and breakdown

Ayers began playing the double bass during middle school. He attended the Juilliard School in New York as a double bassist, but suffered a mental breakdown during his third year and was institutionalized. Ayers was one of the few black students at Juilliard at that time.

For some years he lived with his mother in Cleveland, Ohio, where he received electroconvulsive therapy for his illness to no avail. After his mother's death in 2000, he moved to Los Angeles, thinking that his father lived there. Homeless and suffering from the debilitating symptoms of schizophrenia, Ayers lived and played music on the streets.

The Soloist

Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez met Ayers at Pershing Square in 2005, and discovered his background at Juilliard. Lopez wrote several columns about his relationship with Ayers, and Nathaniel's slow transition out of homelessness. Lopez's subsequent book, The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music, was based on his relationship with Ayers.