Inspiring String Players
In no particular order, here are some interesting bowed-strings related videos!
Michael Cleveland plays Lee Highway Blues. Michael Cleveland is a bluegrass fiddle player from Indiana USA. He was born completely blind and a childhood ear infection caused him to lose 80% of his hearing in one ear. He has won the IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Assoc.) 'Fiddle Player of the Year' prize ten times in addition to other awards with his band, Flamekeeper. Here he is playing some seriously fast and furious bluegrass! Take a look at his unusual way of holding the bow - it certainly seems to work for him!
Heifetz plays Paganini's 24th Caprice Widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time, Heifetz was a Jewish-Russian-American born in Lithuania in 1901. He was quickly recognised as a child prodigy and trained in St. Petersburg in the Russian style. He moved to the USA as a teenager to escape the Russian Revolution. Here he is playing one of the most difficult violin pieces ever written: Paganini's 24th Caprice. Even though what he is playing is incredibly challenging, Heifetz looks very cool, calm and collected.
Yu Hong Mei plays Ballad of North Henan Province by Liu Wenjin on the erhu. The erhu is a bowed two-string violin from China. Yu Hong Mei started playing the erhu aged 8 and is now Director of the Chinese Music Department at the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music. She has toured all over the world and debuted many outstanding musical compositions - including this piece. Ballad of North Henan Province was written by the composer Liu Wenjin. It combines elements of traditional Chinese music with western musical influences - the piano would not usually accompany the erhu! Do you think these instruments sound good together?
Landfill Harmonic Here is a short video about the Paraguayan music teacher Favio Chavez and his Recycled Orchestra of Cateura, a children's orchestra in Paraguay which performs with materials recycled from a trash landfill.
Her Ensemble play Alma Mahler: Die Stille Stadt Her Ensemble is the UK's first women and non-binary orchestra. Founder, Ellie Consta was inspired to form Her Ensemble after realising that in 2019/20 that just 3.6% of the classical music pieces performed worldwide were written by women. Alma Mahler was a composer once married to Gustav Mahler. Before their marriage, Gustav insisted that Alma stop writing music. Whilst she wrote over fifty compositions (possibly many more), only fourteen of her compositions survive. It is very difficult for historians to build a true picture of what Alma was like as there are many conflicting stories about her.
Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán play El Son De La Negra Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán is a Mexican folk music orchestra created in 1897 by maestro Gaspar Vargas López. The group is made up of a harp, a guitar, a vihuela (tenor guitar), a guitarrón (bass guitar), three trumpets and seven violins. Mariarchis help celebrate the great moments in the lives of Mexican people and are often hired to play at birthdays, baptisms, weddings, patriotic holidays, and even funerals. In a society where young men and women were often kept apart, a young man could send a message of love to the woman of his heart through a 'serenata' or serenade by Mariarchi musicians. The violin was developed in Europe, then brought to the New World by the Spaniards in the 15th century. The indigenous Mexican people quickly learned and adopted the violin after it was introduced to their society and it became an essential ingredient in Mexican folk music. "El Son de la Negra" (translated as 'The Song of the Black Woman') is a Mexican folk song. It is commonly referred to as the "second national anthem of Mexico."
Hilary Klug - Cotton Eyed Joe Hilary Klug is a buck dancer and fiddle player from Tennessee, USA. She plays and dances at the same time! Buck dancing is a form of percussive dance. It is a combination of English and Irish clog dancing and West African step dances during the time of slavery. Buck dancing is one of the early forms of modern tap dancing.
Violin-Playing Robot made by Toyota Toyota's violin-playing robot was made in 2007. It is equipped with a total of 17 joints in both of its hands and arms, uses precise control and coordination to achieve human-like dexterity.
Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays 'The Swan' from Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens. Sheku Kanneh-Mason is a British cellist who won the 2016 BBC Young Musician award. He was the first Black musician to win the competition. He has six siblings all of whom play classical music to an extraordinarily high standard. The Swan, by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns, is one of the most famous and beautiful pieces written for the cello. It is part of a suite of pieces called 'Carnival of the Animals'.