To Foreverred: Some questions :D

[Benji]

I read your biography on your site the other day, so I just have a few questions:

Can you give us more details on your classical background?

What made you to think "outside of the box" start playing other genres of music with your violin?

Do you plan on have a dual career as a pop/jazz/etc violinist and a classical violinist or will you focus on the former?

What are you favorite composers (any genre)?

What acoustic violins do you own? How regularly do you use them?

oh and of course ...

How often do you practice? Do you use scales, appregios, etudes, etc?

[foreverred]

I read your biography on your site the other day, so I just have a few questions:

Can you give us more details on your classical background?

What made you to think "outside of the box" start playing other genres of music with your violin?

Do you plan on have a dual career as a pop/jazz/etc violinist and a classical violinist or will you focus on the former?

What are you favorite composers (any genre)?

What acoustic violins do you own? How regularly do you use them?

oh and of course ...

How often do you practice? Do you use scales, appregios, etudes, etc?

Benji! I'm flattered that you'd want to know so much about my career, so I'll do my best to answer your questions.

1) Can you give us more details on your classical background?
*****
I started playing violin when I was 7, and began playing viola when I was 10, I also began vocal lessons at that age. I was trained in the Suzuki method, which encourages the players to feel the music and become one with the instrument, it also helps to develop memorization skills. Since my family was not rich enough to have constant violin lessons for me, my parents who were high school administrators hired the orchestra teachers from their schools to take time after their school days to teach me. By the time I was in 5th grade, I was playing in the middle school orchestra, and by the time I was in 8th grade, I was doing concerts with the high school orchestra - they had me alternating between first violin, second violin, and viola, sometimes as "guest principal" or "guest co-principal." I also won two UIL competitions in middle school and one in high school. I attended Southwest Texas State University and alternated between co-principal first violin and principal viola for two years.

2) What made you to think "outside of the box" start playing other genres of music with your violin?
*****
During high school, I had been listening to other styles of music such as Latin, Middle Eastern, Celtic, new age, and jazz and was influenced by players such as Karen Briggs (Yanni's violinist), Eileen Ivers (Riverdance) and Jean-Luc Ponty. I also listened to some Vanessa-Mae but at that time, she had not gone "pop-sical" so I stuck to the more jazz-new age styles. Even though all my teachers focused on classical training, they exposed all of their students to other styles of music where the violin played an integral part, but although I'm from Texas, I never liked country music so I stayed away from "fiddle" music. I began experimenting with electric violin since I had purchased a Zeta Strados 5-string violin at the end of high school and was sitting in with some local bands in Austin and as a soloist with some local DJs (electronica, techno, hip-hop) until I was picked up by the Dreamsound Orchestra to tour with them in 1998, and that is when I branched out of my classical background and into a status as a crossover player - I used both the acoustic and electric violins on that tour as a soloist and as part of the string section. Within a year, I started writing some of my own songs but never did anything with them until the tour was over and I did a collaboration CD with a local electronica-techno DJ and we wrote a couple of songs together, which I've remixed into new versions which will be on my upcoming CD.

3) Do you plan on have a dual career as a pop/jazz/etc violinist and a classical violinist or will you focus on the former?
*****
I think I'm already there. I do performances with several different groups - my own band's live sound is a fusion of world beats, ambient electronica/techno, jazz, new age, and of course classical since I use keyboards, synthesizers, loops, live drums and percussion, flute and saxophone, background singers, cello, electric/acoustic bass, and acoustic/electric guitars. Other bands I've been working with with include a Latin-jazz/salsa/flamenco group, another flamenco band, an electronic-pop band, a world-fusion/rock band, a hip-hop/R&B group, and a couple of jazz and blues pop groups. I also perform classical gigs and showcases with just a cellist, a pianist, or an acoustic guitarist. My main focus is more on being an electric or plugged-in violinist because I like merging all the styles I like to play in my live show or with other groups, and it can be hard to do that with an acoustic violin or one without a pickup.

4) What are you favorite composers (any genre)?
*****
I find that I like modern artists like Yanni who fuse classical and contemporary jazz and rock with world music. I also like experimental artists like Moby (he is a composer in his own right) - his creations are very lush and instrumental. However, I also love Sergei Prokofiev and Mussorgsky - I love the Russian composers. They're very dramatic and explosive.

5) What acoustic violins do you own? How regularly do you use them?
*****
I have three acoustic violins and three fully electric violins. My oldest violin is a 100 year old French violin (maker unknown), I rarely use it though because of the effects that temperatures and environments have on it. I've used it in a couple of recordings. My other two acoustics have pickups on them - one of them (Walter Sandner) has an L.R. Baggs pickup, which is essentially a violin bridge with two sensor elements built-in and so I can play this instrument acoustically or plugged-in - I love the tone because it's very rich and bright in right spots with a fat low end and a sweet high end. The other acoustic, made by Susanna Goetz in Maine, has a pickup by Richard Barbera (New York) on it and this pickup is like the Ashworth bridge that is on Vanessa-Mae's Ted Brewer violin - it's made of maple but it's a thick bridge with two pickups for each string, so it cannot be played acoustically, it sounds muted if I try. The sound is awesome when I'm plugged in. Both of the acoustics are under 10 years old and I prefer to use them at live shows because they aren't brittle and can take a beating. My electric violins, however, are my BABIES. I use two identical Zeta Jazz Acoustic Pro violins (acoustics with the Jazz pickup) - both of them are Translucent Red but one is a 4-string and the other is a 5-string. I also play a 6-string cherry red stained Violectra (out of the UK).

5) How often do you practice? Do you use scales, appregios, etudes, etc?
*****
I practice about two to three hours per day. I do use all of the major and minor scales and arpeggios, but I'm also integrating a lot of jazz scales and Mixolydian scales into my practices to develop my jazz, blues, and Middle Eastern/Persian/Indian chops.

Thanks, Benji!!! It was a pleasure.
-Omar