JournalStar.com - Ground Zero Online

O'Connor's sound blends classical, folk music
BY JEFF KORBELIK / GZO
Friday, Apr 21, 2006 - 12:07:00 am CDT

Imagine a fiddle player standing alongside American composing greats Copland, Bernstein and Barber. It may seem a little far-fetched. Unless, of course, you’re talking about Mark O’Connor, the 44-year-old fiddle sensation who has turned the classical music world upside down and inside out with his genre-crossing compositions.

He will perform in Lincoln on Tuesday with the Appalachia Waltz Trio at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.

Today, his music — a folk-Celtic blend with classical shadings — is as lush and rich as the Appalachia countryside that inspires it.

It’s also becoming as accessible and enjoyable as anything Copland, Bernstein and Barber penned.

The comparison to the American music greats drew a gentle chuckle from O’Connor during a recent phone interview.

“Well, it’s funny you say that,” he said. “Ever since I’ve been performing my compositions on stage with orchestras, a majority of the time I would be programmed with Copland or Bernstein.”

It’s probably safe to assume that someday entire orchestral programs will feature his music.

The fiddler/violinist/composer knew he was onto something when he started fusing classical and folk music. He just hoped others, especially fellow musicians, would feel the same way.

“If they see them as two separate worlds — one is black, the other is white and are very different from each other — then it’s going to be difficult to ask a musician to play this music,” he said in a phone interview.

“I think the biggest thing for me is if a player believes (the fusion) is a good thing,” he added.

As he once did, and still does.

Originally a classical guitarist, O’Connor expanded to violin, which led to his musical exploration of Texas fiddler Benny Thomasson and French jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli.

Talk about your extremes.

Even today his press biography refers to him as violinist and fiddler. When asked if he’s one or the other, he’s quick with his response.

“Both,” he said. “I have to include both. It’s an all-inclusive-type mentality. I don’t like to leave anybody out because the instrument has two names. I associate with both.”

More to the point, he said, it’s about his music.

“By adding both names (to the bio), it hopefully blurs the boundaries and makes people realize they have more in common than not.”

O’Connor used his diverse background to foster a new American classical genre that is now uniquely his own.

“I was creating a new style with my compositions that included my history, the things I trained in and bringing them into a new kind of focus,” he said.

It led to the recording and release of his first concerto, “Fiddle Concerto,” in 1994.

But it was his collaboration two years later that put him on the music map.

O’Connor teamed with acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma and double bassist Edgar Meyer on the critically acclaimed “Appalachia Waltz” and, four years later, on the Grammy-winning sequel, “Appalachian Journey.”

The recordings not only put him in the public’s eye, but garnered him a ton of respect in the classical realm.

O’Connor approached Ma about collaborating on yet another project, but the cellist’s calendar was full. He suggested O’Connor find young string players who had an interest and, more importantly, an understanding of his music.

He found them in cellist Natalie Haas and violist Carol Cook and formed the Appalachia Waltz Trio in 2002. The ensemble performs repertoire O’Connor created for his “Appalachia Waltz” and “Appalachian Journey” recording projects.

The trio released its first album, “Crossing Bridges,” in 2004 on O’Connor’s OMAC recording label.

O’Connor first met Haas in 1996 when she was 13 years old after a concert he, Ma and Meyer performed at Stanford University. He signed an autograph for her.

O’Connor heard her play for the first time four years later at a post-“Appalachian Journey” concert reception in Berkeley. He called her technique “lovely.”

The composer met Cook when she was a member of the string ensemble Metamorphosen, which performed the premiere of his orchestral work “The American Seasons: Seasons of an American Life” in April 2000.

O’Connor said he remembers well their first rehearsal together. He brought the women, who didn’t know each other, to New York. They hit the ground running, thanks in part to O’Connor already having transcribed works for violin, cello and viola.

“I thought the music would be more accessible to string players if I wrote it with viola and cello,” he said. “I tried it again with a professional cello and bass ensemble, and I didn’t feel it was successful.”

On “Crossing Bridges,” listeners will hear pieces such as “Blackberry Mull,” “Appalachia Waltz” and “Old Country Fairy Tale.” They are sweet and melodic with a definite folk feel to them.

“In some way, in the back of my head, I wanted to create an American school of string music — something known through its style, composition and techniques,” O’Connor said.

Something that puts him alongside Copland, Bernstein and Barber.

Reach Jeff Korbelik at 473-7213 or jkorbelik@journalstar.com.

If you go

What: Mark O’Connor’s Appalachia Waltz Trio

Where: Lied Center for Performing Arts, 301 N. 12th St.

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday

Tickets: $34, $17 students and children; 472-4747, (800) 432-3231 or www.liedcenter.org