- #NPR PIANO PRODIGY WHO WON MAJOR COMPETITION AT AGE 14 SERIAL#
- #NPR PIANO PRODIGY WHO WON MAJOR COMPETITION AT AGE 14 PROFESSIONAL#
In one incident, a group of five or six older kids beat him up and left him in a cast on his right leg for two months. When O'Connor first began collecting prizes, he faced taunts from his classmates for playing the fiddle that sometimes turned violent. "I wanted to write this book about creating an escape for troubled children through the arts, through music," he said in the interview, "because it's a way to get out of your fraught household or hard, difficult times at school." It was a revelation that my life could change in this way," he writes in the memoir. It turned out that music allowed me to not be frightened. "I was predisposed back home to be fearful of most things. These struggles also prevented him from experiencing stage fright. Mark O'Connor A 14-year-old O'Connor (top) poses with fellow world champion fiddlers (L to R) Jim Chancellor, Benny Thomasson and Terry Morrisīut O'Connor's remarkable journey was filled with challenges: violent outbursts from his alcoholic father at home, severe bullying at school and jealousy on the road. And the fiddler composed a piece performed by competitors for the 2021 Menuhin International Violin Competition that he dedicated to the late star violinist Yehudi Menuhin. An album featuring a recording of his own "Appalachia Waltz" with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and bassist Edgar Meyer topped the Billboard classical music chart in 1996. He's also shared the Carnegie Hall stage with leading classical violinists Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell and Midori. O'Connor says his Fiddle Concerto has been performed more than any other violin concerto composed in the last 60 years. He also branched out into classical, composing symphonies and concertos played by orchestras from Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles and London. He collaborated with fellow musicians like Wynton Marsalis, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash and James Taylor. O'Connor eschewed traditional categories, shifting from bluegrass and country to jazz and rock, joining the David Grisman Quintet and The Dregs, as well as touring with renowned French jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli.
#NPR PIANO PRODIGY WHO WON MAJOR COMPETITION AT AGE 14 SERIAL#
He was such a serial winner that the National Guitar Flatpicking Championships instituted the "Mark O'Connor Rule," a five-year ban for winners, after he won that contest the second time in a row.
#NPR PIANO PRODIGY WHO WON MAJOR COMPETITION AT AGE 14 PROFESSIONAL#
Mark O'Connor O'Connor made his Nashville debut at the Grand Ole Opry, introduced by "King of Country Music" Roy Acuff.Īs a teen, O'Connor outperformed amateur and professional musicians many times his age – on the fiddle as well as on guitar and mandolin. The musician, who has gone on to develop his own method of teaching fiddling based on American folk music, stressed the importance that mentors can play in the life of a child by breaking down barriers. "This is such a fantastic way to express for a child to have a unique voice already without even having to really try and search for it, because he encouraged it. Thomasson "taught me creatively and really pushed me to come up with my own improvisations, my own renditions of old tunes," O'Connor recalls. O'Connor would spend his weekends learning from the Texan master. O'Connor, who already had a couple years of classical and flamenco guitar playing behind him, at first picked up tunes by ear, "self-taught, self-motivated to learn." He quickly caught the attention of Benny Thomasson, who helped develop the Texas style of fiddling and just happened to have retired in another part of Washington state.
It was the start of a journey against the odds chronicled in O'Connor's memoir published this month, Crossing Bridges, with its accompanying photo book and CD of childhood recordings.
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