Daniel Sperry is a master of making the most of those still, small pivotal moments of epiphany.

“These things happen, and you have to listen to them,” he said.

It started with the way he got his cello, Flare. It was 15 years ago in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he was living at the time. He had been a part of the Nashville Symphony orchestra, but despite that success, he had “lost heart” with the idea of making a living as a musician. Then it occurred to him — just play.

“It was a particular point in time. I knew if I didn’t just get simple and play for anyone who wanted to hear me play, I would lose the ability to give that particular gift. If anyone asks me to, I should just play,” he said.

Then someone did ask, a friend holding a dinner party in her home. Sperry hesitated — he didn’t have a repertoire, and he didn’t have much beyond a rented cello. But he reminded himself, “This is what I wanted,” he said.

He seized the moment by improvising — he decided to recite the Mary Oliver poem “Flare” and play between stanzas. After the performance, one of the guests approached him.

“She says, ‘What you’re doing is really beautiful, but this cello isn’t really good enough.’ I said, ‘Well to get a good cello I would need like $10,000 dollars,’ and she said ‘Well I have $10,000 dollars,’” he said.

Together, they went to a shop and bought Flare.

Sitting in Lithia Park in the final hour of Wednesday morning, Sperry cut a dapper figure in his oxfords, colorful socks, fedora and burgundy corduroy blazer. He was at home leaning into a park bench in the shade of the trees. He’s been playing at this spot for nearly a decade. The moment that led to the generous gift of Flare was the beginning but not the end of how he came to be a fixture along the path in Ashland’s Lithia Park for the past 11 seasons. 

When he moved to Ashland, he brought Flare but not the confidence to make a living with music. He found other work, but by happenstance one day, he went to Lithia Park to throw a ball with his son. But his son wanted to hear his father play the cello.

“I set up on that wall over there, and without thinking about it I left my case open. And after I had played for a while my son was like, ‘Dad, look what’s happening!’ and there was all this money in the case,” he said.

That was the moment he learned about busking — a musician playing with an open case in a public place for money, he said. He kept doing it, and people gravitated toward him. He tried a few different spots before finally settling on his signature location, through the downtown entrance to the park, just past the duck ponds along the main path.

Then winter presented another obstacle — not enough people walk by to drop money in the case when it’s cold. He took his show on the road, traveling cross-country to perform private concerts. He is also asked to perform at private parties at his home in Ashland.

Sperry described another moment when he was feeling discouraged with the struggles of a musician’s life but was once again renewed. In this particular instance, a college choir came to perform in the park, and when Sperry joined them to play “Hallelujah,” he was fortified once again in the creative spirit.

As he kept playing in the park, his instinct to improvise combined with his spontaneous audience, and he was inspired to create a unique series of compositions — musical portraits of his listeners.

“I realized that when someone was sitting by themselves I was playing for them, something about them. That’s where those portraits started,” he said.

As people learned what he was doing, they began to commission musical portraits for loved ones. Sperry began conducting interviews of friends and family to create increasingly intricate portraits. Over the years, he’s been particularly impressed by the phenomenon of how many dimensions can be inside one person and one life. One friend describes a subject as a father, devoted to his children. Another sees him as a talented and focused engineer.

“You find out that everyone is epic — in their own way. You think there’s such a thing as an ordinary person, but there just isn’t,” he said.

Once he’s gathered all these dimensions together, knitting them into one cohesive piece takes time. Sometimes a composition is started and thrown away and started again.

“I keep going until I become emotional. If it speaks to you pretty hard, then it’s good,” he said.

The commissions also help Sperry make a living. For his first commission, he charged $250. Some balloon out to as many as 10 interviews for one individual and can cost around $2,000. Last year, a wealthy man was willing to pay $5,000 to create a portrait of his wife with parts written for all the instruments the family plays — the wife on piano, the husband and daughter as violinists and the son on a cello.

Now, rather than being discouraged about a musician’s life, Sperry has founded a nonprofit to encourage other artists to come out and play in parks around the country.

“If there were more incredible musicians playing in public spots all over the country, it will be something like a medicine to people … regardless of social differences, we are all existing together, we are all feeling and need to feel things, to feel things together in one place,” he said.

He established Park Music Beauty late last year with no idea how to start a nonprofit, he said. But after canvassing friends and approaching heavyweight donors such as Lithia Motors CEO and President Bryan DeBoer with some success, he said the idea is gaining momentum. He’s encouraged by the way people have responded with enthusiasm.

Inspired by his big commission project last year, Sperry is working to use the funds from the nonprofit to begin playing in the park as a group with violinist Kathleen Strahm. The group will also hopefully include a pianist from Cedar Rapids, a second violinist, and two cellos. He’s creating a repertoire for the group including his own music and popular music like Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” — a melody he was elated to find written for cellos.

After playing for strangers in the park for over a decade, he said he has seen many things — many dimensions of life and people from all walks of life. But most of the time, when he’s playing what he sees is beauty.

“When all the things are happening at once, an older woman pushing her husband up in a wheelchair, someone is dancing in the meadow, there are parents with their kids. Sometimes I feel like I could just keel over and as long as I protected the cello on the way down, it would be okay … because this is as good as it gets,” Sperry said.

You can find Sperry performing in Lithia Park throughout the summer from 10 a.m. to noon most Tuesdays through Sundays, weather permitting. For further details, along with his weekly schedule, see danielaustinsperry.com.

For more information about Sperry’s nonprofit, Park Music Beauty, see parkmusicbeauty.org.