02.07 Strung Out

Strung Out

Bowfire Redefines the Violin
By Bobby Hankinson

A night at the symphony not your cup of tea? Rather schedule dental work than sit through a night of classical music? Well, before you poo-poo the potential of pizzicatto players, let a new sensation hitting Mechanics Hall this month take a crack at changing the way you think of strings.

Bowfire, an exciting collection of musicians from several stylistic backgrounds, combines a masterful show with a theatrical performance to create a total entertainment experience. You may never look at violin and fiddle players the same.

“Our show is totally unique,” said Lenny Solomon, Bowfire’s founder and artistic director. “We demonstrate violin and strings in a very new and up-to-date fashion.”

The group combines styles as diverse as jazz, classical, bluegrass, Celtic, rock, gypsy, and world to please every palette. “We play everything from classical music to ‘Kashmir’ by Led Zeppelin.”

But their selection is only part of their revolutionary company. The fiddlers are also world-class step and tap dancers. Add these performance elements to exciting costumes and lighting and you’ve got quite spectacle. “The most blasé teenagers come in droopy-eyed and see us afterwards and go, ‘I didn’t think I’d like it, but I loved it.”

The group made their debut at Expo 2000 in Hanover, Germany. The response from the show was so great that they were invited to play at the Canadian equivalent of the Kennedy Center Honors, the Governor-General’s Awards. Since then, the group has performed all over the world from Texas to Taiwan.

Combining all these different genres came naturally to Solomon, who grew up in a musical family. As a teen, he strapped a pick-up on his violin and began experimenting with pop music. After playing in bands, he discovered electric violin and expanded his own horizons to include jazz, bluegrass, and world music. “It gave me a really great overview of the possibility of combining disparate styles of violin and fiddle.”

When he decided to form this group, his exposure to all of these styles made it easier to select members because he was familiar with the principal players in each genre. Proficiency was only half of what Solomon was seeking ~ he also wanted pros who could stretch out into different styles.

“There very much seems to be a thirst for musical knowledge in the group,” he said. “There’s always something going on, like workshops in the men’s dressing room ~ it’s a lovely musical environment.”

Still, it’s a lot of work. Solomon also arranges the pieces for the group, which need to be tailored to play on all of the diverse group’s strengths. But he looks at the task as an exciting challenge. “I’ve got a great job to write for this group because of the range it gives me.”

It’s just one of the many things Solomon and Bowfire have to be excited about. They kick off a five-week tour, their biggest yet, at Mechanics Hall Feb. 6.

“It’s the first date in our tour and we’re really very excited to start it out in Worcester.”