‘BRIDGING THE GAP’
String duo Black Violin aims to bring down barriers with unique blends of classical and hip-hop music
Wilner Baptiste is influenced by musicians who can tell a story with their work. The violist’s inspirations range from Kendrick Lamar and Common to composers Dmitri Shostakovich and Paul Hindemith.
“Music in general is supposed to relate to some kind of emotional something,” said Baptiste. “For me, I love someone that can tell me a story I can see, and it’s inspiring to me.”
Genres combine in Baptiste’s group, Black Violin. He and violinist and friend Kevin Sylvester have been touring the world with their unique blend of classical strings and hip-hop for almost 15 years, “bridging the gap” between the two very different musical worlds.
The duo has worked with Kanye West and Alicia Keys, and performed on “Ellen” and at Barack Obama’s second inauguration.
The two, who on stage go by Kev Marcus and Wil B, will be performing in Santa Fe and Las
Vegas, N.M., next week.
The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., residents met in 1996 in their high school orchestra class, Baptiste said in a recent telephone interview. Neither was necessarily drawn to their respective instruments — he describes their journey as taking advantage of situations they were placed in by chance.
Several years before they met, Sylvester’s mother signed him up for weekend music lessons after he started getting into trouble. Violin was the only instrument left. Baptiste, meanwhile, signed up for band class wanting to play saxophone, but he was put in the wrong class.
Baptiste said that when the two met, they clicked because they were both into putting new twists on the classical styles they were playing in class. That often meant trying to play the songs they were hearing in popular culture.
“If we heard a song on the radio that had a violin melody, we would go to school playing that melody,” he said. Combining pop or hip-hop with classical grew organically from there.
Playing today’s hits is something they still do. While a majority of the songs on their set lists are original compositions, Baptiste said the duo will throw in covers ranging from a Mozart/Cardi B mashup to an Imagine Dragons tune.
Baptiste feels like Black Violin is breaking down stereotypes about those who play and love classical music. Its latest album, 2015’s “Stereotypes,” explores that topic.
During a spoken word section of the album’s title song, Sylvester says that while
he wishes people weren’t “threatened by my presence without even knowing who I am,” part of him is glad the stereotypes exist because it gives Black Violin a chance to debunk preconceived notions about what black men can do.
Baptiste said the duo still feels this way, and there isn’t a show that goes by where they don’t feel walls coming down. He said it also happens among the classical and hip-hop fans in the audience who wouldn’t interact otherwise.
“But they do in our shows … . It’s different race, different color, different background, different musical interest,” he said. “They don’t necessarily associate with each other outside of our show. But the great thing about that is they’re enjoying the same thing at the same time, and there’s no barriers: no color barriers, no religious barriers. It’s just music.”