DMA Arts & Letters Live will welcome Brendan Slocumb, who will be in conversation with Terry Loftis, Donna Wilhelm Family, President & Executive Director, TACA, about his new novel, The Violin Conspiracy, a riveting page-turner about a Black classical musician’s desperate quest to recover his lost violin on the eve of the most prestigious musical competition in the world.
Growing up Black in rural North Carolina, Ray McMillian’s life is already mapped out. But Ray is determined to become a world-class professional violinist, and nothing will stand in his way. Not his mother, who wants him to stop making such a racket; not the fact that he can’t afford a violin suitable to his talents; not even the racism inherent in the world of classical music.
When he discovers that his great-great-grandfather’s beat-up old fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, all his dreams suddenly seem within reach. But on the eve of the renowned Tchaikovsky Competition, the violin is stolen, a ransom note for five million dollars in its place. With the descendants of the man who once enslaved Ray’s great-great-grandfather asserting that the instrument is rightfully theirs, and with his family staking their own claim, Ray doesn’t know who to trust - or whether he will ever see his beloved violin again.
Slocumb is an award-winning music educator who has served as the concertmaster and principal violist for the University Symphony Orchestra at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is currently an educational consultant for the Kennedy Center and the concertmaster for the NOVA-Annandale Symphony Orchestra.
DMA Arts & Letters Live will welcome Brendan Slocumb, who will be in conversation with Terry Loftis, Donna Wilhelm Family, President & Executive Director, TACA, about his new novel, The Violin Conspiracy, a riveting page-turner about a Black classical musician’s desperate quest to recover his lost violin on the eve of the most prestigious musical competition in the world.
Growing up Black in rural North Carolina, Ray McMillian’s life is already mapped out. But Ray is determined to become a world-class professional violinist, and nothing will stand in his way. Not his mother, who wants him to stop making such a racket; not the fact that he can’t afford a violin suitable to his talents; not even the racism inherent in the world of classical music.
When he discovers that his great-great-grandfather’s beat-up old fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, all his dreams suddenly seem within reach. But on the eve of the renowned Tchaikovsky Competition, the violin is stolen, a ransom note for five million dollars in its place. With the descendants of the man who once enslaved Ray’s great-great-grandfather asserting that the instrument is rightfully theirs, and with his family staking their own claim, Ray doesn’t know who to trust - or whether he will ever see his beloved violin again.
Slocumb is an award-winning music educator who has served as the concertmaster and principal violist for the University Symphony Orchestra at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is currently an educational consultant for the Kennedy Center and the concertmaster for the NOVA-Annandale Symphony Orchestra.
DMA Arts & Letters Live will welcome Brendan Slocumb, who will be in conversation with Terry Loftis, Donna Wilhelm Family, President & Executive Director, TACA, about his new novel, The Violin Conspiracy, a riveting page-turner about a Black classical musician’s desperate quest to recover his lost violin on the eve of the most prestigious musical competition in the world.
Growing up Black in rural North Carolina, Ray McMillian’s life is already mapped out. But Ray is determined to become a world-class professional violinist, and nothing will stand in his way. Not his mother, who wants him to stop making such a racket; not the fact that he can’t afford a violin suitable to his talents; not even the racism inherent in the world of classical music.
When he discovers that his great-great-grandfather’s beat-up old fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, all his dreams suddenly seem within reach. But on the eve of the renowned Tchaikovsky Competition, the violin is stolen, a ransom note for five million dollars in its place. With the descendants of the man who once enslaved Ray’s great-great-grandfather asserting that the instrument is rightfully theirs, and with his family staking their own claim, Ray doesn’t know who to trust - or whether he will ever see his beloved violin again.
Slocumb is an award-winning music educator who has served as the concertmaster and principal violist for the University Symphony Orchestra at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is currently an educational consultant for the Kennedy Center and the concertmaster for the NOVA-Annandale Symphony Orchestra.
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