Sep 4, 2018
Our guest today is 3-time GRAMMY winner, 6-time Country Music Association Musician of the Year, violinist, composer and educator Mark O’Connor!
As solo recording artist he has sold over 2 million CDs. In 2000, O’Connor won the GRAMMY for “Best Classical Crossover Album” for “Appalachian Journey” with Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer. In 2009, O’Connor won a GRAMMY for “Best Instrumental Soloist performance (without orchestra)” for “Journey to the New World”. The O’Connor Band took home the 2016 GRAMMY for “Best Bluegrass Album” for their debut album “Coming Home”. As a session musician he has appeared on over 500 albums recording with numerous artists such as Dolly Parton, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Randy Travis, The Judds and many more.
He is the founder of the O’Connor Method, a new method for strings which the New Yorker has called “an American grown rival to the Suzuki Method”.
Christopher Dzengelewski and I talk to Mark about how he developed his remarkable musical ability from childhood, his revolutionary Mark O’Connor String Method that’s all the rage amount violin students, his views on music education and much, much more!