Excerpt
SUMMARY: The members of Black Violin want to change perceptions about who can play what kind of music. Wil Baptiste on viola and Kev Marcus on violin met as high school orchestra nerds. Today they play genre-bending music, blending classical music with hip-hop. Jeffrey Brown talks to them about their new album, “Stereotypes.”
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): Wil Baptiste and Kev Marcus, members of Black Violin, two former high school orchestra nerds. That’s how they met. But, also, by their own description, two 6’2” black men who are eager to change perceptions about who plays what when it comes to music.
Their new album is titled “Stereotypes.”
WIL BAPTISTE, Black Violin: I think that’s probably the main agenda, right? You think of…
JEFFREY BROWN: You use the word agenda?
WIL BAPTISTE: Yes, I think so.
If you look at us, we don’t look like your typical violinists. We talk to the kids all the time, and the kids love us just because we can relate to them, so to speak. And that’s what it’s all about, breaking stereotypes.
KEV MARCUS, Black Violin: I look like I should be a linebacker, but to be a violinist, when I realized that, I was just, like, I love it. I’m drawn to it. It’s the thing that — that’s why I wake up in the morning, is to take the violin and kind of change people’s perceptions about it.
JEFFREY BROWN: Blending classical music with hip-hop, traditional instruments, Marcus on violin, Baptiste on viola, with contemporary backup, Black Violin is reaching audiences around the country.
We met them recently at the Publick Playhouse in Cheverly, Maryland. They have played the Apollo Theater in Harlem. They met with American troops in Iraq, and have opened for top pop stars, including Alicia Keys.
It all began in an ordinary, even accidental, way at Dillard High School for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
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