[Music] that's internationally acclaimed violinist Melissa white she is rehearsing to make her debut with the BPO this weekend she recently became a professor of Music at UB and perhaps more importantly she is Fresh Off winning a Grammy award last month as the founding member or one of the founding members of the Harlem quartet and she's joining us in studio right now fresh off that rehearsal and congratulations in person for your Grammy win you won with your group for best classical compendium
yes and it was a history making win that's true yes thank you so much for having me thanks for being here tell us about uh what that experience was like at the Grammys it was all a shock so um we were nominated for our album It's called passion for Bach and C train and um we went to the Grammys and even though you're there you don't expect to win so you're just really surprised I was Sur it's an honor to be nominated right it's so true it's so true so um we love the project though it really is h
eartfelt and we feel strongly about it so we love that more people might get to hear it now and that there you are with your Grammy and where is that Grammy now well it's being mailed to me so I don't actually have it yet okay very exciting so and the group is the Harlem cartet you're one of the found members tell me a little bit more about the group yes so on the album it is the Harlem quartet the ammani winds um a jazz Trio and then spoken word poet AB Spellman had you ever been nominated befo
re not exactly so the Harlem quartet's been a part of grammy wins with chick Korea um a piece we composed with him in 20141 uh this will be our first statue though your first statue as your group just amazing and there you are playing your violin on Instagram and you're a new faculty member at UB yes as the only professor of violin there yes for right now yeah how has that been it's been wonderful so I began in the fall of 2022 um and it's been great getting to meet the students working with my
colleagues is wonderful and getting to know Buffalo has been fun and do you recruit for the violins all over the country or how I do so I travel around the world performing um and it's really nice to be able to share with violinists that now I have a home that I can invite them to come join me and to work with me and also the other wonderful faculty at UV what got you started with the violin I first started when I was six because I saw the violin on Sesame Street when I was four and I just loved
it was isak Pearlman on the episode and I loved how his chin fit perfectly in the chin rest and so when the show went off I asked for a violin but my mom didn't immediately say yes and I had to B for two years exactly very cool and now you're going to be making your BPO debut you're playing a concerto by Mendelson uh actually my kerto is by Florence price okay yes so Florence price is an African-American female composer we almost lost her catalog of music but it was found in her summer home um
not so many years back and so now her name is becoming better known and she's being programmed a lot which is wonderful what's it been like working with the music and also working with the BP it's been great her writing I think is very Soulful um and lovely I enjoy playing it and working with the BP has just been a dream they're so kind they sound so great and it's going to be a lot of fun and can you just explain what it's like to see a conero if someone's unfamiliar with what that is that's an
interesting question because although we read the music and we know what's in front of us we really are um orally trained so we're used to hearing things and knowing how it goes by ear so it's like a a little scavenger hunt of unknown doors you open and you weren't expecting that behind the door but it's a treat to be surprised and then to hear beautiful music on the other side it's a special experience being the audience for one for sure and your performances are tomorrow morning yes and then
Saturday night that's right so tomorrow morning 10:30 a.m. Saturday night 7:30 p.m. all right Grand winning violinist Melissa white in studio with us this morning she is this afternoon that's the second time I've said that today she's with the BP this weekend thank you so much for coming thanks for having me like this weekend thank you
Comments