--- title: Violinist Mark O'Connor: String Americana | TIME description: Composer and violinist Mark O'Connor plays his Americana works with students and teachers from his summer string camps canonical: https://time.com/video/rJ7FS6mP/ og:title: Violinist Mark O'Connor: String Americana og:description: Composer and violinist Mark O'Connor plays his Americana works with students and teachers from his summer string camps og:url: https://time.com/video/rJ7FS6mP/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/rJ7FS6mP/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Violinist Mark O'Connor: String Americana twitter:description: Composer and violinist Mark O'Connor plays his Americana works with students and teachers from his summer string camps twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/rJ7FS6mP/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Violinist Mark O'Connor: String Americana > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Violinist Mark O'Connor: String Americana [Watch (HLS stream): Violinist Mark O'Connor: String Americana](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/rJ7FS6mP.m3u8) (7:55)  _Published 2009-07-29. Composer and violinist Mark O'Connor plays his Americana works with students and teachers from his summer string camps_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:12 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Sinéad O'Connor On Her Conversation with Miley Cyrus](/video/kFCxLv1D/) ### Sinéad O'Connor On Her Conversation with Miley Cyrus [Sinéad O'Connor On: The Pope & Religion](/video/tgeLsGIV/) ### Sinéad O'Connor On: The Pope & Religion [Frank O'Connor interview](/video/FgMPLZch/) ### Frank O'Connor interview --- ## Transcript >> The first time I picked up a violin, I was 11 and it was very interesting because I had begged for one for 3 years. >> For Mark O'Connor, the violin is a history book. >> When I talk about American music and I have the violin in my hands and I hold it up to young students and I say, you know, on this instrument, it tells the story of America. It was there every step of the way, every century and every era of our developing music. >> There are a few people who can bring that history- a distinctly American history- to life through music more than Mark O'Connor. >> Just the- this simple little wooden box that was perfected literally hundreds of years ago- with this one box, you know, you could produce all these different kinds of sounds, emotions, styles, and reflect all the kinds of culture from around the world that string music has always been a part of. >> Okay, let's try that again there. Three, four. >> He plays with such ease- a kind of homespun virtuosity, and he shares that history with others through teaching, performing, and playing. >> Mark is a very rare creature. He's a person for whom music is like breathing. Every form of American music is completely natural and organic for him. >> Like this rehearsal for a show at The Egg Performing Art Center in Albany in New York, O'Connor prepares for a celebration of the versatile violin. >> And it's a really a celebration of string playing that culminates out of my string camps that I've been holding for a number of years now. So the violins will just sustain and then fade out. >> Okay. >> This group is made up partly of teachers and a student from O'Connor's summer string camp. >> I'm actually gonna try something very straight. I'm actually gonna try to improvise so I'm not gonna think about it, and whatever comes out will come. >> Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. >> O'Connor started the camps in the Tennessee Hills about 15 years ago and they feature players from all genres of music. >> Because this will be the final piece of the evening. So basically- >> The idea behind the string camps is that all these different string styles can coexist and be taught there side by side. I've asked 3 or 4 of my campers to come out with me on tour and to perform with me. >> Anastasia Khitruk is one of two violin teachers from the camps who will play today. >> I've always believed that the greatest thing about music is its ability to unite people. It is pre- language, if you will, so when people come from different traditions of music, which it'd be the equivalent here of me sitting speaking Italian to somebody speaking English, but magically, amazingly, we understand each other and we understand each other in a perfectly complete way. >> Jazz violinist Sara Caswell has attended and taught at the string camps. >> It's unlike anything else I've ever experienced. I came into the camp for the first time when I was 19 years old and at that point, my musical exposure had been pretty much limited to Western European classical music and jazz and swing. I remember vividly driving into the camp grounds in Tennessee and just being surrounded by all these fiddle tunes coming from different areas of the camp, and it was just- it was an eye and ear opening experience and I fell in love from that first day that I was there. We're specializing in different things. I'm doing jazz and Anastasia is doing classical and Sam, our prodigy, is doing many different things. >> You can see so many different aspects of how a violin could be played or how music can be interpreted. >> Fifteen- year- old Sam Weiser will attend his seventh string camp this year. >> He really is a musical product of what I hoped and or envisioned the camps to provide. >> I feel like hanging out with the older people- as much it's- I love it 'cause it makes me feel a little bit older. It makes me feel a little bit mature, which as a teenager you don't really get to feel in school. >> Mark O'Connor's compositions blend quintessentially American genres into a new form: toe- tapping, vibrant, rich and authentic. The best word for it is " Americana ". >> My musical style, my composition- it really has a lot to do with kind of like a more expansive Americana string language and the basis of American anyway is that it's full of different ethnicities coming into this, you know, stir fry of people from everywhere in the world and to celebrate all these kind of cultures and music on the string instruments and then find ways to play together, I think is the magic. >> I love how everyone kinda puts their own little twist on his American music. >> Later that night in the concert hall, there's proof that blending these distinct styles and the people who played them can work. Young and old, different types of music can come together in concert and an audience from all walks of life can tap their toes in unison. >> Music is really one big language and I don't think it can really be- I mean obviously it can be divided somewhat, but I think that in order to enjoy music as a whole, you really have to experience more than one element of it. >> For every concert you play, you want people to be better than they were when they came in. >> So what's great is that we're all bringing these unique styles to, you know, a single stage but we all can listen and hear the similarities between what each other does and it just- you can't do anything else but inspire each other. >> I'm hopeful in our concert that there will be a lot of joy and they'll see us come together and not only acknowledge each other, not only respect each other but actually bring joy to each other's existence. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Violinist Mark O'Connor: String Americana","description":"Composer and violinist Mark O'Connor plays his Americana works with students and teachers from his summer string camps","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/rJ7FS6mP/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2009-07-29T02:14:32.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/rJ7FS6mP.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/rJ7FS6mP/","duration":"PT7M55S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/rJ7FS6mP/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```