Black Music Sunday is a weekly series highlighting all things Black music, with over 285 stories covering performers, genres, history, and more, each featuring its own vibrant soundtrack. I hope you’ll find some familiar tunes and perhaps an introduction to something new.
I grew up with a grandfather who played the cello, a father who played violin, and my younger brother was dedicated to classical music. He loved Beethoven so much, in fact, he backpacked across Europe to visit Beethoven’s grave. It never occurred to me that this love of classical music was something people thought that Black folks don’t feel.
In case you haven’t heard of them, allow me to introduce you to The String Queens. This documentary is a good place to start:
The String Queens is an incredibly accomplished group:
Praised for its authentic, soulful, and orchestral sound, The String Queens (TSQ) is a dynamic trio that creates stimulating musical experiences that inspire diverse audiences to love, hope, feel, and imagine! With an array of repertoire spanning from the Baroque era to the Jazz Age to today’s Billboard Hot 100 Chart, TSQ performs versatile programs that take listeners on a rousing musical journey through time and a multitude of musical genres.
Based in Washington, D.C., TSQ has been featured in performances at renowned concert halls and venues across America, including Carnegie Hall in New York City and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the nation’s capital. Notable appearances include a special performance dedicated to Vice President Kamala Harris at the “We Are One” Presidential Inauguration Concert in January 2021 and rendering a spotlight presentation of TSQ’s electrifying arrangement of Harry Styles’s hit song “Golden” for the world’s most prestigious tennis tournament “The Championships, Wimbledon” in June 2021. As an ensemble who frequents the D.C. jazz scene, other headlining performances include multiple appearances at the DC Jazz Festival and the Capital Jazz Fest.
Recognized by D.C.’s leading news network WUSA9 as “school teachers by day and concert performers by night”, TSQ’s dedication, service, and innovative work in the field of music education has been acknowledged by the DC Jazz Festival with the “Jazz Education Award” in 2022, Carnegie Hall with the “Music Educators Workshop” Keynote Address in 2021, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with the “Aspire Award” in 2020, Washington Performing Arts’s “Mars Arts D.C” Resident Ensemble in 2019 and 2020, and most recently, a partnership with the Save The Music Foundation to present a series of professional development workshops for performing arts educators around the country on “Social Emotional Learning in the Arts Classroom” and “Trauma-Informed Centered Arts Classrooms” as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
I have practically worn out this video of one of their performances:
These three Black queens are not the only Black folks on strings—there is a long history that many modern-day folks are unaware of. Take a journey back in time and meet violinist and composer Joseph Bologne, “The Chevalier de Saint-Georges.” I get irritated when I read bios which dub him “The Black Mozart,” a sentiment I share with The New York Times writer Marcos Balter, who wrote a piece in 2020 titled,”His Name Is Joseph Boulogne, Not ‘Black Mozart’”:
Last month, Searchlight Pictures announced plans for a movie about Joseph Boulogne, the 18th-century composer also known as Chevalier de Saint-Georges.
When the announcement was made, headlines resurrected yet another moniker for Boulogne: “Black Mozart.” Presumably intended as a compliment, this erasure of Boulogne’s name not only subjugates him to an arbitrary white standard, but also diminishes his truly unique place in Western classical music history. […]
His influence in France and abroad, both as a curator and a creator, was felt long after his death. It is a remarkable fact that his music has survived two centuries of neglect caused by the systemic racism that permeates the notion of a Western canon. Neither his omission from music-history textbooks — of the two most used in America, he gets a brief, vague mention in one and is absent from the other — nor a lack of advocacy from programmers, publishing houses and record labels have erased him completely.
This is the ultimate proof that Boulogne doesn’t need to be anyone’s second best — let alone anyone’s Black echo. So, yes, I cannot wait to see the movie. But spare me the awful nickname.
I did see the film, and enjoyed the imaginary violin duel with Mozart:
I’ve also written about him here in the past. Here’s an excellent short bio of Boulogne from the BBC:
But it’s not just sisters wielding their bows these days. Meet Black Violin:
Black Violin is composed of classically trained violist and violinist Wil Baptiste and Kev Marcus who combine their classical training and and hip-hop influences to create a distinctive multi-genre sound that is often described as “classical boom.” The band released their major label debut Stereotypes (featuring Black Thought of The Roots and MC Pharoahe Monch) on Universal Music which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Classical Crossover Chart and #4 on the Billboard R&B Chart. NPR took note and declared “their music will keep classical music alive for the next generation.”
PBS NewsHour featured the group in a story about breaking classical music stereotypes:
Sylvestor and Baptiste were also profiled by Lindsay Totty at NPR:
Kevin Sylvester says that when most people see a 6-foot-2-inch, 260-pound black man, they don’t expect him to also be a classically trained violinist. A recent exchange with a woman in an elevator, when he happened to have his instrument with him in its case, drove that point home.
“She’s like, ‘What do you play?’ ” he recalls. “I’m like, ‘I’m a violinist.’ And she was like, ‘Well, obviously you don’t play classical, so what kind of style do you play?’ “
Sylvester says he explained that while he does have a degree in classical music, he plays all kinds of styles. “She didn’t mean it maliciously,” he says, “but I hope she gets to see us in concert and we can change her perception.”
Moments like this inspired Sylvester and his partner, violist Wilner Baptiste, to call their new album Stereotypes. It’s the latest release by their duo Black Violin, whose seeds were planted years ago when the two met as high school students in Florida.
Give a look and listen to “Stereotypes”:
I have a long list of wonderful Black musical artists on strings to share today and can’t fit them here, so please join me in the comments section below to give a listen.
