Updated, 10:32 a.m.

Good morning on this frigid Wednesday.

This month, we asked readers to nominate candidates for New York Today’s New Yorkers of the Year, our annual celebration of citizens who have made a difference in the city over the last 12 months. We received more than 100 submissions, and this week we are highlighting a few of our exemplary neighbors.

When the elevator opened on the fourth floor, the hallway was filled with the sound of a concerto.

Kelly Hall-Tompkins was in her practice studio in Washington Heights, warming up for a performance that weekend with the Westchester Philharmonic. But the closet-size room, filled with sheet music, framed inspirational quotes and James Baldwin novels, is not the only place you can find the renowned violinist rehearsing. Once a month she visits local shelters to perform the scores of Beethoven, Bach and other classical masters for homeless New Yorkers.

Ms. Hall-Tompkins earned acclaim last year as the fiddler in the Broadway revival of “Fiddler on the Roof.” But more than a decade ago, well before she could have imagined landing the coveted violin soloist gig, she was playing chamber music in soup kitchens.

It was 2004. Ms. Hall-Tompkins was preparing for a one-woman show but found herself struggling to focus after the death of a close friend. In need of company, she took to a shelter near Lincoln Center and began making her way through Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Major. Twelve people listened to the same notes she would soon play before an audience of 1,000. Some tapped their feet, laughed or smiled. Others, who told the violinist they had never heard classical music before, cried.