a path forward

Music

The Houston Symphony welcomes Grammy Awardwinning trumpeter Chris Botti for three concerts, April 1416. Steven Reineke conducts.

Art

David Shelton Gallery shows new paintings by Jonathan Faber in Alluvial Plane, up through May 13. The colorful, layered pieces communicate the continual process of editing and refining when it comes to making art — and living life.

MUSIC

White Oak Music Hall welcomes electrosynth-pop group M83 for a lawn concert on April 15.

Born into a family of doctors, Ricardo Nuila felt pressure to choose between a career as a physician and one as a writer. He considered giving up his medical school admission until one professor gave him some advice: “You can go to graduate school to learn technique, but where are you going to get your stories? In medicine, you’ll find stories.”

In his new book, The People’s Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine, Nuila, who has practiced medicine at Ben Taub Hospital for more than a decade, shares stories about several uninsured, desperately ill patients. Nuila provides a comprehensive history of the basic foundations of healthcare in the U.S. and explains how, despite the quagmire of that “system,” institutions like Ben Taub offer hope and a way forward.

“You can get very fatalistic about healthcare,” says Nuila, a married father of two. “But there are places, safety-net hospitals in particular, where people are doing really good work. That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to write this book.” –chris becker, photo by jonas mohr

Buy Yourself Flowers Style

Spotted on the fall/winter runways: opulent, bold jewelry with a sense of old-world glamour. We love this amethyst ring from Valobra Master Jewelers, with clusters of gemstones that shine on and on.