ARTIST PROFILE

Mark O'Connor and the Appalachia Waltz Trio

BIOGRAPHY

Violinist and composer Mark O'Connor is widely recognized as one of the most gifted contemporary composers in America and surely one of the brightest talents of his generation.

The New York Times calls his "one of the most spectacular journeys in recent American music."

The Baltimore Sun and the St. Louis Post Dispatch label him "genius."

The Los Angeles Times describes him as an artist who is "one of the most talented and imaginative...working in music -- any music -- today."

The Seattle Times says of his music: "brilliantly original."

His compositions are "informed and engaging," according to the Washington Post.

An excerpt from a feature in the New York Times eloquently describes Mark O'Connor's tradition-filled past, his stellar present and his future full of promise:

"The audience was on its feet. I'm certain that at least some of the concert-goers were moved not merely by Mr. O'Connor's solo, as exciting as it was, but by its having come on the heels of the orchestral piece ("American Seasons"). They were moved by Mr. O'Connor's journey without maps, cheering for the only musician today who can reach so deeply first into the refined, then the vernacular, giving his listeners a complex, sophisticated piece of early-21st-century classical music and then knocking them dead with the brown-dirt whine of a Texas fiddle."

A product of America's rich aural folk tradition, Mr. O'Connor's journey began at the feet of violin masters Texas fiddler Benny Thomasson and French jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli. Along the way, between these two marvelous musical extremes, Mark O'Connor absorbed knowledge and influence from a multitude of musical styles and genres. Now, at age 44, he has melded and shaped these influences into a new American classical music. The Los Angeles Times warmly noted he has "crossed over so many boundaries, that his style is purely personal."