Classical
violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins has spent most of her life a long way
from her Greenville, S.C., birthplace.
...
But performing the music of Mark O'Connor always brings her back home.
"There
was a style of fiddle music I was just enamored with as a child,"
Hall-Tompkins says. "My youth orchestra used to do a retreat in the
mountains of North Carolina every summer, and the local folk musicians would play for us. Before I met Mark, I never knew the specific
terminology for that type of music. Now I know it was the old-time music
of North Carolina. Mark's music has given me an opportunity to bring
out something I didn't realize was in me, which is my South Carolina
roots."
Hall-Tompkins' repertoire is broad, ranging from Bach,
Kreisler, and Saint-Saens to sadly neglected African-American composers
such as William Grant Still. With master's from the Manhattan School of Music and undergraduate degree from the
Eastman School of Music, her background is more formally classical than
O'Connor's.
But soon after the two met several years ago after a
performance of O'Connor's "American Seasons," O'Connor recognized he had
found a musical soul-mate.
"One
day I got an email from Mark inviting me to collaborate on a project he
had in mind, which was the Double Violin Concerto," Hall-Tompkins says.
"In the course of our beginning to work together, he also said he was
bringing his string quartet back and asked if I would like to be the new
first violinist. So we've been doing both projects together. I love his
music — it allows a different facet of my music making to have a
voice."
One of those voices might sound like improvisation,
although Hall-Tompkins' violin part in O'Connor's double concerto has
none. "I'm the type of interpreter who can bring the element of
improvisation to the music that I'm playing," Hall-Tompkins says. "I
feel what I create is uniquely me, although it uses the framework of the
printed music."
Even in the cadenzas, it's O'Connor who's doing
the improvising. "Mark has written it in such a way that he's
improvising against the fixed composition of my part." "But the way
it's written, it all sounds improvised. Of course, we are responding to
each other in a way that artists would do regardless of the source of
the notes," Hall-Tompkins says.
Steve Siegel is a freelance writer.
Retweeted by
Mark O'Connor @markoconnor35
To 10691 followers
Retweeted by
Mark O'Connor @markoconnor35
To 10691 followers
No comments:
Post a Comment