Orchestral magic from a one-woman orchestra comes to Sellersville
Correspondent
How many V-year-olds do you know think the violin is cool? One Cherry Hill native did since she fiUVW QRWLFHG KHU EHVW IULHQG playing one, and at an early age, Caryn Lin set out to obtain one of her own. What she did with it later is the real story.
“:KHQ , fiUVW VWDUWHG SODying, and they gave a test for musical talent, they said I didn’t have any talent!” said Lin.
That all changed later when her teachers admitted the mistake and retracted their statements. The child did indeed have talent. She went on to become the concert mistress in school or- chestras, studied with the Philadelphia orchestra’s Larry Grika, among others, and majored in violin performance at Northwestern University.
She loved her Jackson Browne and Bob Dylan albums, and after class let out, she’d come back to her room to croon to them — with her violin.
Classically trained Caryn Lin is all grown up now, and her love for the violin is still at the forefront of her life. In fact, she’s taken her once inspiring instrument, added another string (or two), and has given it a steroid shot. So if you’re not of the persuasion that violins are all that cool in the traditional sense, you’ll be amazed at what Lin can make her beefed-up violin do now.
vou’ve heard of a sixstringed guitar, but have you met a six-stringed electric violin?
Aside from adding strings, while jamming with other musicians in street shows and bands across the pond in Germany after graduation, one of Lin’s band mates had an inspirational thought to plug an echo box onto her violin. The sound became PDJQLfiHG DV WKRuJK LW were a soundscape of sorts, ultimately electrifying, and unlike anything she’d ever heard. She’s found her niche. A musical star was born.
“We’re in our 10th year,” she said of her touring performances with her husband, Bruce Rogers, who plays electric drums and guitar. They put on an engaging 45- to 50-minute show that includes a PowerPoint presentation, where she brings sounds out of her various electric violins that send the audience into a state of amazement.
The technique she employs is called “looping,” where she adds sounds and layers them to bring about an otherworldly, 3-D effect. In essence, she’s playing duets and trios with herself by the music she’s crafted. Adding to that, she turns the violin into a percussion instrument as well, lending to the alltogether blend of a virtual orchestra.
Lin describes her music as “a cross between classicalish and rock-ish.”
“Everything I do is ‘ish.’ If I had to pick styles, it would be a cross between new-age classical and world [native African].”
She has introduced her work as “…Native American, West African, technotribal, Australian, cosmic, Celtic, rock piece.” Obviously, there are no limits to her creativity.
Once bullied in school, the formerly nerdish Lin brings a message to her otherwise entertaining and educational programs for kids and adults.
“I try to impress upon the kids to say ‘no’ to naysayers,” she said. “Just because someone bullies, or says you can’t do something, you don’t have to listen.”
Come see the familyoriented shows of this musical innovator and violin virtuoso, who’s played every venue from Lincoln Center to the Crayola Crayon Factory. Her music has been heard in the French Alps and is featured on MTV’s “Real World,” along with 150 radio stations across the country. vou’ll even see and hear her in the movie “Philadelphia.” Her fifth album is titled “The Call.”
As the New vork Post once said, “Unlike the music GHfiQHG Ey SuUH JHQUH, LLQ’V only limits are those of her electric violin.”