Neo-Soul Jazz on the violin

15 MP3 Songs in this album (58:41) !
Related styles: JAZZ: Soul-Jazz, URBAN/R&B: Neo-Soul

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Details:
Maestro J (James Racine) was born in 1980 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti into a family of musicians. His father is a flutist, conductor and composer. His mother is an educator and professional violist. Maestro J began playing the violin at the age of four, instructed by his mother. He later studied with Yvrose Philippe-Auguste and Romel Joseph. He added the piano and the flute a few years later.

For three consecutive summers he was awarded a scholarship to attend the Sewanee Summer Music Center, in Tennessee. By the age of fifteen, he was a violinist in the Holy Trinity Philharmonic Orchestra, in Port-au-Prince. At seventeen, he was the assistant concertmaster of the Holy Trinity Philharmonic Orchestra and the first violinist of the Trinity String Quartet. He led the quartet in 1998 to perform at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in South Bend, Indiana. He later moved to the United States and studied the violin with Keith Cook for a year.

In 1999, J started to attend the University of Kentucky where he was awarded a full Undergraduate Scholarship. He was also the recipient of the William C. Parker Grant during his entire undergraduate career. He studied the violin and the viola respectively with Professors Daniel Mason and Dorotea Hoffman. He played in the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra and the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra. During that time, Maestro J fell in love with teaching and participated in the String Project, a program delivered by the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) to offer a musical education to the youth in Lexington. He was then hired to teach along with Professor Hoffman at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. At the conservatory, he taught a strings class for the collegeâs preparatory program. At the â¨university, he was the founding member and violist of the Animato Quartet. He performed along with violinists Hristo Popov, Ella Chang and cellist Yoonie Choi. The Animato Quartet performed at many events around Kentucky and the founding members were awarded full fellowships to participate in the Garth Newel Chamber Music Festival in Hot Springs, Virginia.

Maestro J received in 2004 a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education and a Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance with a concentration on violin from the University of Kentucky. He then moved to Louisville to take the Orchestra Director position at Myers Middle School. J now resides in Louisville and is both Musical Director and Orchestra Director at the Kentucky Country Day School college preparatory program where he also holds a full violin/viola studio. He is also the Residing Violin Instructor at Steilberg Strings Instruments and teaches both violin and viola at the Western Louisville Talent Education Center along with Keith Cook. As heavy as his schedule is, he still finds time to play with The Louisville Orchestra & The Louisville Bach Society. Undoubtedly a sought-after performer, he has even performed Gospel as a solo violinist at many well established churches such as St Stephen's Church, Canaan Christian Church, South East Christian Church, Mercy Seat Baptist Church and more.

Maestro J is the solo violinist of the New Age group F.E.D. As a group, they were gold medaled in the Instrumental Music category at the 2006 edition of the World Championships of Performing Arts (WCOPA) held in California. J has a natural ability to improvise in various styles of music, such as symphonic orchestra, Latin orquesta, R & B, gospel, jazz ensemble and even rap. Additional exposure to genres of Caribbean, Afro Latin, Pop and Middle Eastern musical idioms has allowed him to evolutionize his identifiable style. Maestro J regularly honors performance commitments at public and private events such as concerts with Roy Ayers, Keke Wyatt, Static Major, Michel Martelly etc. and recently released his album âStages of Loveâ on which he showcases the best of his talent. Please visit www.blazinstrings.com