Tracy Silverman 'Conversations with Musicians with Leah Roseman' #electricviolin #musicinterview

Timestamps are listed below for the many topics we covered.
We talked about his classical roots, studying with legendary teachers Lewis Kaplan and Ivan Galamian, his rejection of the classical world and his fascinating career, through his years in rock bands, we even talked about some of his early gigs, including learning the ropes as a strolling violinist, getting the job as first violinist of the innovative Turtle Island string quartet, and the development of his Strum Bowing method. We talked about many musicians, including some of his collaborators and mentors including Terry Riley, Darol Anger, Roy “Futureman” Wooten, Mark Wood, and composers Roberto Sierra and John Adams.
Lauded by BBC Radio as “the greatest living exponent of the electric violin”, Tracy Silverman’s groundbreaking work with the 6-string electric violin defies musical boundaries, and you’ll get to hear him demonstrate quite a bit in this episode . A leader in the progressive string community, his Strum Bowing Method has been adopted by players and teachers all over the world, and we talk about strum bowing and he shows us the basics.
Tracy Silverman was named one of 100 distinguished alumni by The Juilliard School and he has performed as a soloist with many of the world’s finest orchestras and has had many violin concertos composed specifically for him by Pulitzer winner John Adams, Terry Riley, Nico Muhly, Kenji Bunch and others as well as the composer of 3 electric violin concertos of his own. In this conversation one of the many topics we covered was the new concerto writtten for Tracy called “Ficciones” by Roberto Sierra.
Finally, we dived into his creative process, how music affects our emotions, and how to stay open by listening to others, and learning to show up as ourselves.
Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:02:29) Concerto “Ficciones” by Roberto Sierra, premiered with the American Symphony Orchestra
(00:06:13) Tracy’s 6-string electric violin built by Joe Glazer with demonstrations, and more about “Ficciones”
(00:13:04) Tracy’s support system for the instrument and his progression from classical violinist through his rock days
(00:21:37) Lewis Kaplan
(00:24:25) Ivan Galamian
(00:27:40) Tracy’s approach to Bach
(00:31:04) Tracy’s childhood, starting to study composition
(00:33:14) intersection of improvisation and composition
(00:35:17) more about” Ficciones”
(00:37:20) “Between the Kiss and the Chaos”
(00:39:51) Turtle Island String Quartet and career advice
(00:43:35) Strolling violin gigs, wedding singer
(00:46:41) John Adams, “Dharma at Big Sur”, solo recital versions of concerti
(00:49:00) Looping with demo
(00:56:27) Album “Beats and Jams” with son “Toby Beats”
(01:01:11) mentor and collaborator Terry Riley
(01:03:23) process of improvisation
(01:09:56) using Strum bowing principles in different styles
(01:16:47) Egberto Gismonti, Darol Anger
(01:19:24) Caito Marcondes
01:23:43 Turtle Island String Quartet, Darol Anger and the origin of strum bowing
(01:27:08) how music affects our emotions
(01:31:10) Roy “Futureman” Wooten, positive mindset,
(01:36:30) Tracy’s challenges with the 2020 lockdowns
(01:43:25) manager Brian Horner and putting together commission for “Ficciones” with different orchestras
(01:45:21) Rudolph Hawkin, Mark Wood, Matt Bell, Chuck Bond Trager, Tracy’s mission with string playing
(01:50:23) How Tracy practices
(02:03:28) Advice on being open and listening to other musicians

[BrendanPowerMusic]

Another wonderful musical conversation; I really enjoyed hearing about Tracey and his innovative approach - thanks Leah!