Good Morning Obots!
Today’s featured genre of choice for talented African-American violinists is Classical!
Aaron Paul Dworkin was born on September 11, 1970 in Monticello, New York to Vaughn and Audeen Moore, but they were forced to give their son up for adoption. When he was two weeks old, Barry and Susan Dworkin, who both were New York City College professors, adopted him. Barry and Susan had another son as well. Susan had been an amateur violinist before Aaron’s adoption, and when he was about five, she began to play again. She would play Bach pieces and gave him an interest in playing.
At age 10, his parents moved the family from Manhattan to Hershey, Pennsylvania because his parents got jobs at the Hershey Medical Center.
He attended the Peabody Institute and Philadelphia’s New School of Music. By his teens, he was performing regularly with the Hershey Youth Orchestra and the Harrisburg Youth Symphony. For his junior and senior year of high school, he attended the Interlochen Arts Academy, after his parents convinced him he needed to change. He had been unhappy about attending his other high school due to some prejudice based on his race.
Dworkin enrolled at Penn State where he was concertmaster for the Penn State Philharmonic Orchestra. He was enrolled as a business major though, and he withdrew without earning a degree because of financial reasons.
He then decided to move to Michigan. He worked until he attained enough funds to attend the University of Michigan. He graduated from the University of Michigan School of Music, with a Bachelors (in 1997) and Masters (in 1998) of Music in Violin Performance, graduating with high honors.
Inspired by the works of William Grant Still, he realized the lack of the minorties involved in classical music. He created the Sphinx Organization to help reflect the diversity in the United States in orchestras. He is the Founder and President of the Sphinx Organization.
He was a Member of the Obama National Arts Policy Committee.
Jessie Nzinga Montgomery
Jessie began her musical studies at age four on the violin at the Third Street Music School Settlement in New York City. Thanks to the creativity and expertise of her teachers, she was already seriously involved in the art of improvisation and composition by age eleven. In 1998 and 1999, she was a recipient of the Composer’s Apprentice Award given by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
After high school, Jessie pursued a bachelor’s degree in violin performance at The Juilliard School. Midway through her studies, she served as a composer for a new music series presented by the New York Youth Symphony in 2001. While living in New York City, she continued her studies with composers Derek Bermel, and Steven Burke. She has been a composer for two independent films, one of which was in collaboration with her father, Ed Montgomery, also a composer and independent film producer.
As a chamber musician, Jessie is a founding member of PUBLIQuartet, a budding ensemble that is made up of composers and arrangers, who feature their own music as well as that of other New York based composers. One of the specialties of the quartet is their live improvisations, which are often structured by audience participation.