He has never forgotten two mentors who helped turn him into a global superstar: Yehudi Menuhin, the classical virtuoso, and Stéphane Grappelli, the great jazz violinist. Nigel Kennedy, the classical violinist who has sold two million copies of his work, has never forgotten either of them.
Now, Kennedy has disclosed that he has been quietly teaching young violinists for years, and that two of them will be performing with him in London. Two of these young violinists will be performing with Kennedy. “It’s been nice to put something back into the area that’s given me so much,” he said in an interview as reported by the Observer.
It has been reported that he has replied to aspiring professional musicians who have approached him backstage after his performances and asked for a signature or the opportunity to meet him. In the event that they were carrying a case for an instrument, he requested that they perform for him at that same moment.
It is enjoyable to listen to young kittens who are excited about playing the violin, he described. According to me, they had performed in front of my band as well as other individuals in the dressing room.
It has resulted in his serving as a mentor to a few of those young musicians in between his performances on worldwide stages. He made the following statement: “I get them to play, but I’m not like one of these terrible tyrannical maestros who interrupt the kid after thirty seconds of what they are playing.” Before I even utter a single word, I always wait till they have finished playing the entire piece of music. In order to make it easier for them to play the instruments, I make an effort to provide them with technical instructions.
To give one example, he directs them as to whether or not they are playing loudly enough: “A lot of people [play] like little mice in a hole.” If you are at a concert hall that does not have any power amplifiers, you should play for the audience in the back of the hall.
“I’m always trying to get kids, adults and all the orchestras I meet to make a more dynamic contrast, because it’s like punctuation – if you listen to someone who talks too much and they’ve got no commas or full stops, it just becomes like a drone, doesn’t it? In the same way, music is the same.
“Some of these straightforward fundamentals of making music are the ones that are glossed over far too easily when people become bogged down in technical difficulties,”
It is safe to say that Kennedy is among the most significant violinists that Britain has ever produced. He was a student at the Yehudi Menuhin school in Surrey, where the renowned violinist personally sponsored his tuition. This was due to the fact that Kennedy’s single mother would have had a difficult time affording the tuition. “He was completely insane to do that, but it gave me a lot of inspiration,” Kennedy recalled as he reflected on the situation.
Kennedy was just 13 years old when he played with Grappelli for the first time at the Menuhin school, which led to a great deal of additional sessions. Despite the fact that other educators were disapproving of the child’s interest in jazz, Menuhin expressed his admiration by saying, “It’s great that the kid is actually thinking for himself.”
Kennedy claimed that Menuhin “was not attempting to create clones out of all of us.”
After that, Kennedy succeeded in breaking down barriers, particularly with young people, by performing expert renditions of a wide variety of musical styles, ranging from jazz and rock to classical music.
His Vivaldi: The Four Seasons album, which was released in 1989, ultimately became the best-selling classical recording in the world and also made it onto the charts of popular music. The music of Jimi Hendrix, whom he considers to be one of the most influential composers of the 20th century, is included in his extensive repertoire.
He believes that music teachers should go beyond classical music and incorporate jazz and other styles into their lessons: “If we can’t admit that improvised forms of rock or hip-hop are as good as classical music, and just as likely to be inspirational, then it’s perfect for racism and every other form of prejudice. We are going to have a society that is prejudiced if we continue to hold on to our prejudices in music. People will genuinely feel constrained in this society by prejudices like racism, antisemitism, or homophobia.
He stated, “When I hear them play well, it’s fantastic to think that maybe I just had a millimeter of influence in helping them.” He was referring to the young artists whom he had mentored.
The 25th of September marks the beginning of Kennedy and his band’s four-night residency at Ronnie Scott’s, a jazz club in London. Two of these young musicians will be performing alongside Kennedy at its establishment.
Later this year, Chester Music will release the next music book, Songs My Mother Never Taught Me, which will also include Kennedy’s original works. The book is scheduled to be released later this year.