Black Violin Brings Their A-Game to Paint Branch

Unique Musical Duo Plays for PB Ahead of Sold Out Strathmore Show

Black Violin Brings Their A-Game to Paint Branch

Aiesha Solomon, Staff Writer

 

img_9592 img_9586 On Thursday, November 10, the impressive violin and viola duet Black Violin came to Paint Branch High School to give a mini concert. The show was a preview of their sold-out performance which took place at Strathmore on Saturday.

This duo, which is made up of Kevin Sylvester and Wilner Baptist, talked to the audience and shared with them that they started off like any other instrumental music students in high school. Sylvester noted that the two met at Dillard High School of Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where they performed in the orchestra. Of this, Sylvester slyly noted that he took “first-chair” while Baptist was “second-chair.”

The two met in this orchestra class and had a music teacher who pushed them to attend college on full music scholarships. Both Sylvester and Baptiste loved playing so much they continued playing at their respective colleges – Florida International University for Sylvester and Florida State University for Baptiste.

At first, Baptist wanted to explore and study the saxophone but was put into viola classes because of a mix-up. Fortunately, he decided to stay and accept this turn of events. According to a 2012 interview with Current TV, Baptiste stated, “I stuck with the viola, and it opened a lot of doors for me.” His goal as a performer is for people to attend the concerts, and then return home “to be better people.”

Sylvester, in the same interview, explained that his goal for his audience was to think about “…what they would do differently in their lives. We want to make sure they are not just playing the violin or playing other instruments, but we also want to make sure they are thinking about what they can do differently in their lives.”

Black Violin came to prominence in 2005 when they performed on the music competition program “Showtime at the Apollo.” On the show, they shared their fusion of Jazz, Hip hop, Funk, Classical, and Modern Classical. The duo, according to Sylvester, won four times with their originality still intact. After their success there, the duo went on to work as background/accompaniment musicians, producers and writers for stars like Alicia Keys, Kanye West, Tom Petty, Lupe Fiasco, Aerosmith and others.

The message Black Violin provided PB Students with was to hold on to our hobbies and wishes and practice consistently until it’s so polished people will pay just to see a glimpse of your talent.