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Classical violinist fiddles around with Americana

By Walter Tunis Contributing Music Writer

no credit listed. from http://www.shorefire.com/clients/moconnor/.

Mark O'Connor has straddled the divide between classical violin and the American style of fiddle playing. He said he began combining the style early in his career, about 25 years ago.

IF YOU GO

Mark O'Connor

■ 3 p.m. Oct. 4, with the Appalachian Waltz Trio. The Kentucky Center Bomhard Theater, Louisville. $25, $32. 1-800-775-7777. www.kentuckycenter.org.

■ 6:45 p.m. Oct. 5, for WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour with the Appalachian Waltz Trio. Kentucky Theatre, 214 E. Main St. $10. (859) 252-8888. www.woodsongs.com.

■ 7 p.m. Oct. 27, with University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra. Paramount Arts Center, Ashland. $20, $25, $35. (606) 324-3175. www.paramountartscenter.com.

■ 7:30 p.m. Oct. 30, with UK Symphony Orchestra and Chorale. Singletary Center for the Arts, 405 Rose St. $20, $10 students. (859) 257-4929. www.singletarytickets.com.

Some artistic visions can take years, decades even, to formulate. And that can often be meager compared to the time it takes for those ideas to find an accepting audience.

For Mark O'Connor, the journey continues this fall with the further realization of what he calls "new American classical music." During the course of an October residency in Lexington, he will perform with the latest version of the ensemble that helped introduce his new string music to the world, team for two concerts in two cities with the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, and introduce instruction of a violin method that is as Americana-friendly as O'Connor's concertos, string quartets and symphonies.

"About 25 years ago, I started this idea of combining classical music — the styles, techniques and even instrumentation — with American fiddling," O'Connor said last weekend from his home in New York. "I've been able to explore that in the solo music I've done, in chamber music and now with orchestras. So this idea of cross-pollination of music is something that continues to this day."

UK Symphony director and conductor John Nardolillo has collaborated with O'Connor on numerous performances during the past five years. "As a player, Mark is at the very top of the field," Nardolillo said. "He is the best and best-known living fiddler. His facility with the instrument is just extraordinary. It may even be unequalled in the classical field as well. But what draws in the audience is his incredible expressiveness on the stage, even if it's with the simplest old-time tune."

In his early career, O'Connor, a Seattle native, worked with such disparate ensembles as the David Grisman Quintet, a leading new-generation string-music group that combined elements of bluegrass and jazz; and The Dregs, an early-'80s version of the Southern- fusion band Dixie Dregs. But studies with visionary French swing-jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli and an active '80s career as a Nashville studio musician expanded an already versed stylistic vocabulary.

In the mid-'90s came two recordings that set O'Connor's classically inclined string music into motion. The Fiddle Concerto, in 1995, offered two extended pieces — a concerto and a string quartet — heavily accented by American fiddle playing. The following year brought Appalachia Waltz, with fellow string journeymen Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer. The third and newest Appalachian Waltz Trio, with violist Gillian Gallagher and cellist Mike Block, brings O'Connor back to Kentucky for performances in Louisville on Sunday afternoon and in Lexington on Monday for WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour. The WoodSongs performance will be augmented by four string players from the UK orchestra.

"The trio plays some of my most accessible music," O'Connor said. "But it also really helps me describe the idea of this new American string music."

Such music, in essence, begins with Americana inspirations. That means echoes of folk, jazz, bluegrass and country register in O'Connor's compositions. For instance, in O'Connor's String Quartet No. 2: Bluegrass, released on an album in May on O'Connor's Omac label, a plaintive melody circulates, sounding for all the world like a vintage Hank Williams record.

"I was listening to one of his violin caprices the other night," Nardolillo said. "It's sort of written in the style of a Paganini caprice. So on the one hand, it's incredibly virtuosic. But on the other hand it sounds like fiddle music. It's an extraordinary combination."

O'Connor said, "A long time ago, perhaps when I really started focusing on my solo career, I realized people my age and older were going to be sort of slow to come to the musical changes and philosophical differences I was bringing to the table. That's when I thought my best success, so to speak, would be with the next generation of string players."

That brought O'Connor to the idea of developing his own violin method, one that stressed the same Americana inspirations as his compositions. The first two method books of a planned 10-volume series will be published in November. Part of O'Connor's October residency, which culminates with performances with the UK Symphony in Lexington and in Ashland, will focus on instruction of the method for area music teachers.

"With the method, I realized I had an endgame," O'Connor said. "And that endgame would be the string player of the 21st century. That would involve a player with working knowledge of jazz and folk as well as classical music."

But how will an educational system that didn't widely accept jazz as part of a music curriculum until the past few decades feel about an entirely new method of violin instruction?

"The establishment of academia is exactly that — it's an establishment. To change these things overnight is difficult, just as changing government overnight is difficult," he said. "Over time, people come to change and establishments eventually adapt. The violin has been around for a long time with established ways of teaching. So there is bound to be resistance to the method because of the change.

"That doesn't mean people won't come around, though."