For nearly five decades, Mark O’Connor has been at the forefront of what might be called American Classical music. His career began with a fiddling debut at the Grand Ole Opry at the age of 12. He has since mastered and taught violin, fiddle, guitar and mandolin. He’s won three Grammys as a performer and composer, bridging the gaps between classical, folk, bluegrass and jazz.
For the last 10 years, O’Connor has been writing and performing music with his wife Maggie. Their new album is called Life After Life.
Mark and Maggie O’Connor are performing with the Winston-Salem Symphony this weekend. The concerts, called "Beyond The Blue Ridge," celebrate the American West.
Mark and Maggie O’Connor recently joined Neal Charnoff by Zoom from their home in Charlotte.
Interview highlights:
Mark, on why the fiddle speaks to him:
"The fiddle, to me, means much more than just a single instrument. It's a whole kind of way of life. It's a way of thinking about culture, about the world around us."
Mark, on his composition "Strings and Threads," which will be performed with the Winston-Salem Symphony:
"[It starts] in Ireland and Scotland, and [it shows] how the fiddling from there came over to early American times, you know, way back in the colonies, and then how it assimilated into the cultures of that time period. And the fiddle was immediately shared. It was a shared instrument in the communities in North Carolina, you know, in the Southeast especially, so this piece describes the evolution of American folk music through the violin."
Maggie, on the new album Life After Life:
"The theme is really about love and learning to love life again, especially after what we went through in the pandemic. It's a very positive album. There's so many different kinds of love too. There's a song called 'Spice of Life,' just learning to love the little things and appreciate the little things, which I think we all did during the pandemic."
Mark, on his advice for aspiring musicians:
"Well, you've got to follow your heart, and every artist knows this that has made it, but you gotta put your entire self into your art, and don't leave anything on the table. Because what's happening is that you're going to be competing with or juxtaposed to other people that are doing that. So you've got to give it your all, and you have to do it consistently over years. And you never are done being a student."