THE MUSICIAN'S SHED PODCAST: "THE VIOLIN DIVA" CHARISA DOWE ROUSE

What happens when classical training meets soulful innovation? You get The Violin Diva.

This week in The Musician’s Shed, host Samar Newsome sits down with the incomparable Charisa Dowe Rouse. From prestigious concert halls to high-energy contemporary stages, Charisa has carved out a unique space in the music world that is entirely her own.

In this episode, we go beyond the music to discuss the grit and grace required to navigate the industry as a woman of color and how to turn a passion for strings into a global career.

🎙️ Inside This Episode:

• The First Note: Charisa shares her origin story and the moment she fell in love with the violin.
• Navigating the Industry: A transparent conversation on occupying spaces as a woman of color and breaking through traditional barriers.
• The Power of the Instrument: How the violin opened doors to international opportunities and unexpected stages.
• The Blueprint: Charisa drops invaluable advice for young, aspiring musicians on how to build a sustainable and authentic career.

Whether you're a string player or a creative looking to pivot into new spaces, Charisa’s journey is a masterclass in professional excellence and personal authenticity.

Connect with our Guest: Instagram: @theviolindiva

🎧 Tune in Now: Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major platforms. Don't forget to rate and review if you're feeling the vibe in The Shed!

#TheMusiciansShed #TheViolinDiva #CharisaDoweRouse #ViolinLife #WomenInMusic #RepresentationMatters #MusicCareer #SamarNewsome #StringPlayers #MusicianMindset

STAY Connected on YouTube ,  IG and Facebook.

The Musician's Shed Podcast!

• Subscribe to our video podcast on YouTube.
• Follow us on IG and Facebook.
• Engage by leaving a comment if you like what you hear!

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:26

Hey, this is Samar Newsome, and this is the Musician Shed Podcast. Today I have a very special guest with me, the Violin Diva, right?

SPEAKER_02 0:36

That is the name.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

And her name is Charissa Dow Rouse.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Close.

SPEAKER_03 0:43

No, oh, what is it?

SPEAKER_02 0:44

Carissa.

SPEAKER_03 0:45

Oh, Carissa. See, I've been saying that wrong for years.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

It's okay. I don't really correct people.

SPEAKER_03 0:49

No, you gotta correct people.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

Right. That's what they all say. But remember, like, it's like everybody.

SPEAKER_03 0:54

Right.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

It's like my own father-in-law calls me Clarissa still. We've been married eight years.

SPEAKER_03 0:58

Clarissa with an L? I ain't even in there.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Or Charisse sometimes, depending on the day. Okay. Carissa. Carissa. Carissa. Like, think like the word charisma.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

But the K sound, they come from the same word, but then it's I-S-A without the M. So it's Carissa.

SPEAKER_03 1:16

Carissa. Okay. I'm glad I know that. I never knew that. You're welcome. And James didn't tell me. So but uh it's a pleasure to have you here.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

I'm so glad to be here.

SPEAKER_03 1:28

Yeah, same. I'm glad to have you here. So um we're highlighting women, of course, you know. Oh, nice. So, of course, we we talk to many musicians um of all walks of life. Um, and the purpose of the show is really to um open up people's experience as musicians to to the world and you know, just give other people perspective of your journey, um, some of the things that you've learned, how to be a professional, because you're a professional. You I've seen you all over, and I know you you know you get calls for great things because you because you're great at what you do. Oh, thanks, man. Um, but so what first of all, tell us about like where you where are you from, where'd you come from, and how'd you get into violin?

SPEAKER_02 2:12

Sure. I grew up in Maryland, um, PG County. And the DMV as they call it now. I'm I've such an old head with that that like it was before we really started calling it the DMV like that that I was in Maryland. So it's a long time ago. Um, but I grew up in Maryland, um, though now I live in Newark, which is Brick City up here in New Jersey. Yep. And um uh in Maryland, they uh had a they were just starting this new program in whatever year that was, and my parents were in line back then, and this is how country Maryland is. People like Maryland's not really south. Yes, it is, because Southern Ways, my friend. Um, we used to have to stand in line at the DMV to register your kids for special programs, and so my parents took turns camping out all night, and they wanted to get my brother and me in French immersion school. My brother got registered for French immersion, which was great. For me, I was waitlisted on the French list, but the lady at the at the window was like, But you know, we're starting this new art school, and she's the right age, she's going to kindergarten. We we need kindergartners to fill the slots. Maybe you all want to try art school. And my parents were like, Ah, maybe she'll like ballet or something. And instead of ballet shoes, I bought home a squeaky, out-of-tune making their ears bleed violin.

SPEAKER_04 3:35

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

That I just saw it at mercilessly, um, day in and day out for years because I just loved it, but it was I was really not good when I started. But I just still loved it. So I always tell um my students, now I literally worked at the violin until I got good.

SPEAKER_03 3:53

Right. And I think that's unfortunately I find even with some of my students, they're like ready to be good immediately. And it's like, nah, it don't it don't work like that.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

It does not work like that.

SPEAKER_03 4:02

A lot of things work like that, but that don't work like that.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

Right. And and and I find, especially speaking of that point, with the new generation, if you can teach the kids in your life, wherever they are, to push through something that's hard and then overcome that, then that's a skill that translates across their lives for the rest of their lives, no matter what field they go into. And a lot of kids in their generation are lacking that because it's literally like, oh, clarinet was hard, so let me try a flute next week. Oh, flute was hard, so let me try gym, like or basketball team. No, like the ability to like put your stick your guns tin toes down and push through the hard until you get good at it is definitely a skill that they need.

SPEAKER_03 4:48

Absolutely, and that that perseverance, that stick, what do they stick with it, stick to it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I think again, that's that's one thing. If there's anything I think this generation could be better at, uh, and and not all of them, but like as a collector. Speaking in general relationship, yeah. But I think I find a lot of students because they have so much access to so many things, they have access to, I mean, now, I mean, Google was a big deal. But now they got Chat GPT and we had an encyclopedia britannic. We had to go, we had the hold up. I was telling a kid the other day about what is it called? The card catalog. Yeah, in the library. What is that? You had the you had to know what you was looking for to go find out where to find it.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

Remember you had to write the Dewey Decimal number on a catalog with the decimal on a catalog on a little index card and take it.

SPEAKER_03 5:40

And then go go look, and then you gotta go do a little treasure hunt through the uh library. You don't even know the sections, you gotta look, okay. A three two one.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

One four three two.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

I'm too far. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:53

Crazy. And I mean, just to get information, just to get information. Just to get information that that might be in a book there. Maybe. And then if and then when the encyclopedias came out, I would this was hilarious. We could we couldn't afford the whole set. But you know, when the when the salesman came, they gave you that one for free. So we had the one issue of the encyclopedia. I don't even think we cracked it open anyway, because like, yeah, what's the point? I know I ain't gonna find what I'm looking for, so but I mean, those those were the days, you know what I'm saying? That it taught you to push through.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

It did teach you to p to uh push through. I try to read like um certain books in certain seasons that speak to like the thing that I'm struggling with. And there was a season in particular that um I studied. Um, I want to say her last name is Ellsworth, first name Angela. I think the her name her name's Angela Ellsworth. She wrote a book literally called Grit.

SPEAKER_04 6:45

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 6:46

And that's all about the stick to it-ness and pushing through it-ness and what that is. Um, because we gotta learn that these days. They didn't absolutely have like life, just like you were saying, life as it is doesn't necessarily give us that. So you have to go and make sure you develop that as a soft skill for sure.

SPEAKER_03 7:04

Yeah, and I I just I'm I'm curious how we do that. I mean, because like you said, I of course this book, there's education, there's other people's stories, but I think because they have so much access, they just like spoiled.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

You just gotta put yourself in situations that are uncomfortable. I mean, with my my son, um, there was something that he was it was reading, was really tough for him. And I'm a teacher, so like I was like almost offended. Not at him, but like, what am I doing? How am I like not hitting? I was doing everything. He had all the skills, he had all the the um systems, all the tools, the phonics, all the things, and it just wasn't clicking. Right. And then one day I remember like the light bulb just switched on, yeah. And he was reading everything, yeah, and he became a voracious reader. And to me, like those are always the more precious moments because you taught yourself not just that you could read, but that you can push through something as adverse as that was for him.

SPEAKER_03 8:03

Absolutely. So now you said that you you tell your students you played and just kind of fought through it until you got good. Like, what's what's one of those struggles that you remember having as an early musician or just like learning along your way?

SPEAKER_02 8:19

I mean, just like and the nature of violin, um, it's just not easy. And we know this as we get older, although we might not um encapsulate it, but there are certain personalities that go along with certain instruments, okay, right? And with a violinist, you have to be super hyper-analytical, you have to be super technical, you have to have a really like high power of self-reflection because you constantly have to self-edit. Um, on the piano, like you want to play a B, you play the B.

SPEAKER_03 8:49

And it's gonna sound if it's in tune, it'll just sound like it'll be a B on the violin.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

I have to put my is it telling me to put it the play the G2 or the A1 or the E4? And then literally, if I move my finger from here to here, it changes where that pitch is. Just that little micrometer of distance. Yeah, and so constantly in real time, you're having to edit your fingers because nobody, nobody wants to hear an out-of-tune violin.

SPEAKER_03 9:14

Oh, I've got sir, and that's crazy because I I when I think about that, it's almost like a fretless guitar. It is like it's like you have to know where that place is. And I mean, like, I've seen people play like double bass upright.

SPEAKER_02 9:31

And I'm like, how do you I mean and I know it's like finger like stretches and whatnot, but finger stretches, muscle memory, but it's like that that rule they talk about um when it's time to get good to something, the 10,000 hours. Yes, the 10 outliers, the 10,000 hours of just banging into no, it's here, no, it's here. No, it's here, not here, yeah, here. Like you, it's just that, and then eventually your body starts to like adjust, and then that's the funny part, too, is like from instrument to instrument. If I pick up my my friend's violin and play her instrument, it's gonna be in a different place, yeah. Yeah, and so then your ear and your body are having to adjust again and start to like learn the instrument. It's it takes a particular kind of person, but I was I I felt like I found my soul instrument when I found violin. And my daddy, I was so bad actually. I tell this story all the time. My daddy sat me down and was like, baby girl, this so you don't want to play a cowbell? Yeah, he was like, Piano, we could you're not a bad kid. I love you. Your mom and I will always love you. It's all right. Like maybe just anything else but this. And I just loved the violin so much, so I just was willing to put in that kind of work. And I think, you know, I mean, I would say joke and say, like, I made half of my life decisions at like four, between three and four. I chose the violin at four, and I knew it was no, it has to be this voice, this instrument, this is the one for me. I wasn't necessarily committing to being a violinist for my life, but I knew like in terms of like that instrument, that's the one that speaks to me. Yeah, and so most certainly now on the other side of things, like I can definitely clearly see like my personality matches it. I think like a violinist, all the things. And so I was definitely bent that and the word says that, right? Train up a child in the way they're they should go. But really, what the original translation is train up a child in the way they are bent. I was most certainly bent in the direction of a weird, crazy, hyper-analytical string player. And the proof's in the pudding.

SPEAKER_03 11:40

It's crazy because you you started saying that your parents were just trying to get you into something. You said French emergent. I don't know what that is, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

Oh, that's like um literally all day, everything is in French. So math classes in French, spelling classes in French, reading classes in French, and you were fluent in French probably by you know, if you do that for five years, as especially as a kid with a so spongy, yeah, you're totally fluent by age eight. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 12:05

And just the value in that, just being uh uh fluent in a or bilingual, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

Right, you'll be bilingual by age eight, and it's a way to get the immersion without, you know, like if you You're not going to France, right? Right, you're not growing up, going to France, or your parents are not francophones, so you're just learning it in a different way.

SPEAKER_03 12:25

That's cool. So you did your brother get it? My brother did, and then totally didn't use the other so he so it could have been a waste for you too.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

Yes, he he's in HVAC tech, so he used to French clients, no.

SPEAKER_03 12:39

He doesn't have any uh that's a lot. You know what's funny? When I was in high school, I took French instead of Spanish. Everybody was taking Spanish. Yes, and I was like, you know what? I want to be different. I was always trying to be different, to be honest with you. He wanted to be contrary, yeah. I'm contrary, I've always been contrary. I'm like, so that we're going left, all right. I'm going right. Everybody's going that way, I'm going this way. And I just try to be an individual, but really, just like why do we everybody gotta do Spanish? You know what I'm saying? So that's just I don't know. I always ask why, but that's my personality matched me as a producer and a musician. That's good. As a pianist. I don't know. Are keyboardists like that? I think we are.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

Keyboardists are like the mad scientists of the band.

SPEAKER_03 13:19

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

So we so just think of like you how you all like on stage. I always laugh when I see people set up and they have like 17 keyboards and a laptop and the headphones, and they're just doing all the and they know what everything is.

SPEAKER_03 13:32

This is my bell, right here.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

It looks like it looks like a mad scientist in the lab just creating all the yeah, or you know, you see the the circle keyboard that you all have around you, like that circle with number one, yes, like Brock. That thing, that's that's that's a pianist. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nah. Think about Beethoven in the corner with his his scores and throwing stuff and the wine and the sheet music all over the place.

SPEAKER_03 13:55

Yeah, that's the messy, the messy chaos, but we know what everything is.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

That is that is a keyboard is the pianist.

SPEAKER_03 14:02

That's cool. That's cool. So, yeah, uh that makes sense. So now your instrument is something like I I feel like we I talked to like I talked to some singers, and vocals, you don't have to necessarily be classically trained or like formally trained as well. Like a lot of singers, I think it helps. Oh, absolutely. And I like we kind of concluded that you can have a career as a singer without really having much form more. I mean, your formal could come through like choir or you know, school, just you know, basic, but not like a study with this master and all this stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

I will argue though, sorry to interrupt, but I would argue that the training does give you longevity. Oh, absolutely. If you want to be singing for 50 years, absolutely. I look at like these rockers who are getting really old right now and they still singing and it and putting those shows that matter of fact, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:59

We have an episode with with a vocal healer, and he talks about stuff like that. But nice, um, yeah. So tell me, tell us about just like your 10,000 hour journey. Like, was it something that um once you got it, once you decided, um, did you just like, okay, I'm about to dedicate, you know, X amount. How many hours a day were you like practicing with that?

SPEAKER_02 15:21

So uh, well, there were two big jumps for me. And I feel like in the development of your 10,000 hours, you you have jumps through it. Um, my first jump was I was not really taking it that seriously, but I loved it. And I was very involved in my school program and doing all the things my teacher told me. I was also really blessed, I will say this too, with parents who did what the teacher said to do.

SPEAKER_04 15:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:48

So my parents, um, most black string players, let me back up, but most black string players um come from families that are in that kind of world or that kind of echelon. Um and for me, I did not have that. But my parents were committed and they're like, okay, if you're gonna do this, you're gonna do this. So the teacher said, Practice 45 minutes. Um, I'm sorry, honey, that was 39 minutes and 32 seconds. I strongly suggest you get upstairs and find something else to do through the other five minutes. Wow, like that was my mom's. That's important. And every lesson she would sit there and take notes and be like, uh, she said you're gonna practice your scales this week. So did you practice that scale? Wow. And they did not know violin, but they knew how to be consistent. And I still to this day, as a parent now, something I struggle with is consistency. My parents were unrelentingly consistent, and still to this day, they are like that. So I really benefited strongly from that.

SPEAKER_04 16:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

Um, so they were that was the foundation I was going from. Then around age 12, which you think, oh, like that's not that long. But at that point, I've been playing for eight years already.

SPEAKER_03 16:52

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 16:53

Um, I'm sitting down in orchestra, and this this little kid sat in front of me, right? And my and my parents, again, were doing everything that the teacher said. They said at school, she needs private lessons. They got private lessons. She needs a better violin, they got me a better violin. She needs to be in orchestra on the weekend. They pulled me an orchestra on the weekend. So every Saturday I was in orchestra from nine to one every Saturday in DC Youth Orchestra program in Northeast DC. This little kid sat in front of me. She was probably about six, who was the daughter of a symphony musician, and she played circles around me. And she was not only played circles around me, but like was really nasty and mean. And was like, see, I can do this, but oh, you can't do that yet. And I just got madder and matter, right? All your but you talk about good peer pressure. I was madder and matter all the end of that year. And so that summer, I went home and I said, I'm gonna practice. And I went in my room and I just shut the door, and four hours, five hours a day, I just practiced. And my mom would like open up the door after two hours, baby. You okay? I'm fine, I'm practicing.

SPEAKER_03 18:10

Two hours later. And they're shredding.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

Do you need a snack? I'm fine, I'm practicing. And I did that every day for the summer. And then when with the year started, I would get up at five. My school started really late. We started at like 9, 9:30. Oh, I need to go to school like that. Yeah, I know. We don't do that up here in New York. Um, but I we started at 9, 9:30. So I would get up at five and practice for two hours before school. Wow, that's cool. And then go to school and then homework and all the things after. And I finally, when we came back, I I beat her in the orchestra. But I was like, that that and again, pushing through hard, that ability to like say, oh no, you will not defeat me. And that's the thing, right? Like sometimes now, and I find this in adults too, especially if you haven't developed that muscle. Like, you look at something and you're like, man, this is hard. I don't know if I'm gonna deal with that. Like, I don't know if I want to just like put myself through that. But the ability to like at an early age learn, oh no, this thing will not defeat me. I'm gonna figure out how to overcome this. If even though I don't know it today, I'm gonna work at it until.

SPEAKER_03 19:11

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 19:12

And that was me at 12. And then I can't say that I was committed to really being a violinist until it was time to go to college. Um, but things just started to fall in place where it became really apparent that that was the path that I was going to go to. And I won a full scholarship to um Duquesne University in Pittsburgh for about 30 G's a year, which I they put me, I was like only one of five in the entire music school, and I'm in every picture in the catalog. I was like, that's fine as long as long as you give me that$30,000 check, y'all. And um, yeah, it was it it definitely like things started to fall into place, and that was the second jump when I really realized, oh my gosh, like this is something I'm good at, and it could really like be my life.

SPEAKER_03 20:01

Yeah. So that's amazing. I'm I'm glad to hear that journey. I mean, I think a lot of people, especially nowadays, I think young people don't really know how much it takes. And it takes a lot, and and I would say the other thing is like um my old pastor used to say, you don't grow in isolation, you grow in community. And I think one of the things that highlight uh what you said is that the community of being around somebody better, yes, iron sharpening iron, even though she probably wasn't trying to sharpen you, just the fact that you saw it. Yes, and so many things, even from my perspective, when I when I saw, oh, there's another level. Yes, you know what I mean? Like, okay, I need to kick it into another gear, and that's so important. Um what how do you kind of cultivate that with your students? Because I mean, you're you're a master too, so you could at least they get a model.

SPEAKER_02 20:53

Unf well, so I will say I exposed them to a much more than I got exposed to, and as early as possible. So even the way that I teach, I developed a curriculum specifically targeting minority kids and urban kids, and the way that they learn from the jump is that the violin is fluent across the musical languages, so you treat it like today you're speaking musical French and tomorrow you're speaking musical Spanish, and the next day you're gonna speak musical Greek, and they're all languages, and the violin speaks all of them, but you learn how to flow in between. So then things like improvisation, polyrhythms, the that kind of playing with beat and hump, that's not foreign to them, though it's foreign to some of my peers because we never did that when we were kids. Um, so I just try to expose them, and and also if we're honest, I never saw a black violinist master until I was in college.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

So it's you know, you you are the only one you see. And now PG County is very chocolate. So all of my friends, eh, I have friends from all over the place and all kinds of cultures. And hues, but I as far as master violinists, there were not many of those. Even I was um in a fellowship with the National Symphony Orchestra, and orchestra still to this day, I think it's three percent people of color, and that includes Asians. So in the United States, so you really there were no people of color, really, that I was looking forward to. So I tried to expose them in a way that I didn't have access to in that respect. But unfortunately, beyond that, that kind of stick to itness, it really has to come from them and parents.

SPEAKER_04 22:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

Because your parents, like you have to have the support. Violin is so expensive and so specialized that you have to have a certain amount of buy-in from the parents. Right. It I can't just drop them off a cheerleading practice and then come pick them up. No, you have to be on it in a different kind of way and a different kind of level and on a consistent level every day. There are the primary um teaching philosophy that exists right now for violin in the United States is by a guy named Suzuki. Suzuki, right, and his whole method was to teach it like you learn language from your mother because your mother's talking to you, and your mother talks, and so eventually baby goes here. I got that baby, I could get you. Mama, because they're emulating what you do.

SPEAKER_04 23:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:18

So it's a very parent-involved philosophy. Violin is he he put that in violin where it's a very parent-involved philosophy where you're looking at adults model it. Maybe the mommy gets a violin and models it for you, and they model it. And my mother still could not play the violin, but she could tell you if the finger is in tune or not.

SPEAKER_04 23:37

Right.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

She can tell you what the notes of the D scale are because she sat in all those lessons, all the to the point where I went to college and my first lesson. I remember clear as day. I looked around, I said, wait, who's gonna take my notes?

SPEAKER_03 23:51

Where's my note taker?

SPEAKER_02 23:53

Hold on.

SPEAKER_03 23:53

What this is before who's gonna take my notes.

SPEAKER_02 23:57

This is before Chat GPT.

SPEAKER_03 23:59

So Mom, I need you to complete my notes.

SPEAKER_02 24:01

Can you come to Pittsburgh real quick? Um, but yeah, like it really does there has to be that thing that activates inside of you that says, I want this and I want to be better at this, no matter what it costs. And I find that's not just a violin thing, that's an an every one of us thing for everything that you are called to do in your life. And so that just has to we're honest. That doesn't always activate for people. Some people go through life like asleep, and like, it's not gonna happen for me. I mean, I guess this is as good as it gets. Oh well, and we know those people, and it's sad, but I do believe fundamentally and and and seriously that all of us have that capacity at least.

SPEAKER_03 24:44

Absolutely. I think I think um I mean, back to even just like you said, when this you talked about the two moments where you you actually gotta push, and one was through someone who was on a different level, and then when you went to higher education, yeah. So to me, again, every time I encountered somebody on another level, it was almost like I was like a sponge, like, okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna get what you have. And not because I wanted to get what you have, but I wanted to now reinforce what I have.

SPEAKER_02 25:17

You saw what was possible, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:18

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

And so one of the things I do to that your point, one of the things I do at my concerts, my kids' concerts, I always play one song. Not because I need my extra shine.

SPEAKER_03 25:29

I got places to no, but they need this, they you need to model what what the goal is.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

I mean, I want you to see what's possible. Absolutely. So even if you're the parent who's just been dropping them off, like with my school programs, the parents are not as involved, right? Um, but they drop them off and then they come back and and they're okay. Now we're at the little concert at the end. I want you to see, oh, that's who you've been studying with, right?

SPEAKER_03 25:52

Right. She played like that. Right.

SPEAKER_02 25:54

Oh, honey, you need to practice over the summer because we're gonna go back to Ms. Rouse's class in the fall. Right. Like, I want you to see that what's possible. Yeah, I I didn't have that.

SPEAKER_03 26:02

I used to shy away from that, to be honest with you. I think, I think, you know, my my high school teacher, one, I mean, he was amazing, he was my mentor. And again, I adopted a lot of my playing in high school from him. Like, okay, I see what you're doing, this octaves and all of that stuff. And I adopted it, you know, and um he had never sang, but he was a singer. And one day, on one run out, because we used to have uh gigs and stuff, he sang. And I was like, yo, this dude can sing. Now, you know, you hear him teaching parts and stuff like that. But I was like, yo, this dude's voice is dope. Sing. Like, yeah, but again, it's so like it just it just pushes you to a different level of uh, like you said, aspiration and like thought, like, you know what? Okay, like I respect you too now, even more because now I see that what you're trying to bring out of me, you you know, like what they say, you're not only the the hair club president, you're a client, or like like you, you really, you really do this thing, you know what I'm saying? And honestly, in the beginning of my teaching, I didn't I didn't sing, I didn't do nothing crazy. Honestly, I used to hide behind the piano a lot, but later I realized, like you said, modeling is important. It is so important, it's important for us too. It is, you know what I'm saying, because it's easy to get lost in just being a teacher, but you're both, you know, you're an artist too.

SPEAKER_02 27:22

So I will sit at a Regina concert, or Regina Carter, she's my my favorite. Hi, Regina. I will sit at a Regina Carter concert, or my other favorite is No Pointer, um, who's passed on now. But I will sit at a Regina Carter concert today and still geek out. Wow. And then, like, like literally, probably I guarantee, halfway through every song, I'm like, I gotta go home and practice.

SPEAKER_04 27:43

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:44

I gotta go home and oh god, I gotta go home and practice. How does she do that? Wait, let me look at it again. Yeah, oh, I gotta go home and practice. Like, but it's the same thing, right? Is it's being modeled for you, absolutely, and you're seeing what's possible, and so it activates something in you. I think that's a God thing, it's a you know, like an impartation. You could get super deep with it and all that, but it's it really is like the impartation of like one gift to another, yeah, deep calling to deep and all of those things.

SPEAKER_03 28:09

Yeah, I I I definitely agree with that. I think you find parts of your voice in different places, absolutely. That's a great way of putting it. I like when I got to college, I I was I was exposed to a different master on a different level. And every all of us pianists there, like who were you know playing, you know, jazz and gospel and stuff like that, we were all like, yo, did you hear that chord he did? You know, like stuff like that. And so we were so amazed. And I think in our own way, we all took something from that, like in our professional lives as we continue. So I I definitely see that. And I had to remind myself, even as a teacher, like that's you now. You have to kind of be that in some in your ways of showing your whatever your mastery level is, so that your students know what's possible, like you said. So I think that's important. Um, and thank you. What um what's a challenge you had like throughout your journey, whether it's from playing or from gigging, from like trying to get gigs or something like that. Like, what's a challenge you you think you found yourself? Well God, where do I start?

SPEAKER_02 29:22

Yeah, the road, like we say, like, man, I really wanted to be a lawyer. And God was like, nah, girl, sorry. Um, because the road to a successful career in music, and those of you who don't know, I'm married um to also full-time musician James Biscuit Rouse, drummer, producer, singer. Um, so ain't nobody got no full-time job in my house. Well, we have full-time jobs, but it's not a nine to five.

SPEAKER_03 29:49

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

That part. Um, so it's just an interesting journey. Um, you know, when God calls you to creative endeavors on a full-time basis. Uh, with violin, I mean, you know, I I am very appreciative, and I kind of to backtrack because we got a little bit off of it, but you asked at the peak of my life, I was training to be the first black concertmaster of a major symphony orchestra, because we still haven't had one yet. Wow. And so at the peak of my training, which I would put at my bachelor's and master's time, I was training seven, no, six days a week, seven hours a day.

SPEAKER_03 30:27

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 30:27

So, you know, that's 42 hours, and that's not that's a full-time job, yeah, but unpaid.

SPEAKER_04 30:33

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_02 30:34

It's an unpaid full-time job. And then I was still doing, you know, the stuff that you have to do to keep living. Yeah, my side job, um, and study and teaching um all throughout my college career. So it's definitely like there is a 10,000 hours aspect to it. Um, and then, but I'm grateful for that time because even even though it was intense, I don't have to train like that ever again. Right, right. It's locked in.

SPEAKER_04 31:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

And so, for example, last year I performed for um Fashion Week. Now, most of my life these days is spent in RB, jazz, and gospel. It's just a different kind of chops. Um, but he wanted particularly this Vivaldi concerto for them to walk down the aisle to. And my hands, I was like, oh, he needed it in 48 hours, of course, because it's never like, oh, in six months.

SPEAKER_03 31:30

You got time. Right, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_02 31:31

He's like, yes, now you need it yesterday. Right, exactly. Yesterday. And I was like, oh my God. So I he I I went and found the music. Um practicing it, and my hands at first were like, Heifa. Do you know we don't do this no more? And I'm doing all my scales and my intervals, and I'm like, nope, we can shake it out. Okay, let's do it again. And my baby was like, Mommy, are you okay? I'm like, I'm working, I'm working. Sawed away in the corner. I probably practiced what 10 hours on that in two days, um, and still, you know, living life, teaching all my responsibilities, and knocked it out the park when it was time to do it. But it's because all of that training and founding like that's the foundation, yeah, right. And so my bank is never at zero, even though I don't play like that most of my days.

SPEAKER_04 32:20

Right.

SPEAKER_02 32:21

Um, my bank is never at zero. So, you know, there's that's always, and I tell people this, like, I don't ever feel like as a violinist, you can ever feel like, okay, I got it.

SPEAKER_03 32:31

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_02 32:31

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 32:32

Like a single-I don't think any musician, right? You can ever say you got it. I think I think there's like you said, we talk, it's levels, but even in those levels, you can diminish if you if you're not put in a certain level of like there's maintenance time and it's development time.

SPEAKER_02 32:48

Yes. So and so now, like, I mostly live in maintenance, which which that's all that's also still a dilemma because life would be lifing. And do I have time to spend three hours with my instrument every day anymore? Not as much as I would prefer to, but I'm thankful that I had that core time in there so that there, like I said, my bank is never at zero, and my hands when it comes to push comes to scrub, like I'm playing every day on something, and my body does know what to do to activate those. So that's definitely a challenge that's ongoing. Um, I feel like always you're trying to develop your musical voice. Um, and especially as a musician, you're trying to fill in the holes of what you did not get necessarily through formal training. So, like for me right now, that's like deep understanding of harmony and composition because my life is demanding that I explore that more.

SPEAKER_04 33:40

Right.

SPEAKER_02 33:40

Um, and as a violinist, I'm thinking, I tend to default to thinking very melodically as a vocalist too, right? We we're taught to operate melodically, so then you have to start thinking harmonically. It's a different side of your brain. Yeah. That my brain just does not necessarily default to. I can hear all the things, but understanding them also that you can create them and musical composition is a little bit different.

SPEAKER_03 34:03

I I have a question for you. Now, what because now you're a you're a soloist.

SPEAKER_02 34:09

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 34:10

Primarily, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_02 34:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:12

If not all the way, right?

SPEAKER_02 34:13

Not all the way, no.

SPEAKER_03 34:14

Okay, but so how does that fare? Because I think about when I was in college, when I was at Mason Gross, one of the challenges I had was coming from a church background, ear training, singing by ear, and not reading. And then I went into they basically usher you right into the same classes as anybody else. So they go right into uh methods classes, right into theory. I want to say it was like theory three. That's the level. And I'm like, man, I could barely know what a quarter note is. You know what I mean? And so I had to, I ended up leaving Mason Gross because of that. Oh because I found myself in the courses with people who had sit played in bands their whole lives. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm like, I've never done I'm saying choir, but like choir, if the if the teacher taught me the note once or twice, I got it in my ear. I had good ears. Yeah. So reading was was a challenge for me. My first my first semester in college. So when I went to Westminster, which is where I met your husband.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

Yeah, big head. Mr. Big Head.

SPEAKER_03 35:24

Where I met your husband. Um, what was crazy is that they start at the basic, basic level. Like it's almost like they customize it for singers. Like, you know what? Not all singers read throughout their most don't. So it was it was actually really easy to get. It was fun, and it was like, here's the basic, basic doe. You know, like very simple. And so I appreciate that um approach. But I wonder, like, from your from your perspective, even now, like, is it challenging? I guess it's not, because you're like I said, you're a soloist. I was gonna ask you, like, do you well, do you miss ensemble playing? Because I would imagine you when people call on you, they're not calling you to be a part of an ensemble per se. They're calling you to be the the soloist.

SPEAKER_02 36:12

So oh, yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_03 36:14

But but in your coming up, you did a lot of ensemble.

SPEAKER_02 36:17

I of course I miss it. Well, here's the funny part, right? Is the reality of my life is I play in bands for a living.

SPEAKER_03 36:24

Right.

SPEAKER_02 36:25

Which is not very common for a violinist, right? But I I do.

SPEAKER_03 36:29

Well, that's because you're good at what you do.

SPEAKER_02 36:31

And I've even thought about it in years past. Like, um, I don't even know how to like encapsulate it and like teach other people to play in bands. Like I do, like it's not even it's be it's beyond improv improvisation, right? That's an aspect of it, right? But to be able to like know how to fit in, especially with the violin, and I always say this the violin is a pivot instrument in a in a band. Um, sometimes you're the vocalist, sometimes you're a horn player, sometimes you're a guitarist or rhythm guitar, and all of those mean different things at different moments, and sometimes very occasionally and rarely, you are actually a violinist. Um, and but you have to being able to know that in those moments and navigate those is very, very unique. Um but I do I do miss playing, like especially an orchestra. I don't play an orchestra that much anymore. I miss it very, very much. There's something, and I was just explaining this to my one of my classes last week. They get to go to Lincoln Center and see the New York film next week, so they're very excited. Um there's not anything quite as powerful as being part of a musical instrument that into incorporates a hundred other people. Yeah, and they're all doing the same thing at the same time, breathing the same way, and creating this sonic space that would never exist. And probably, if we're honest, with those people, we'll never exist again.

SPEAKER_03 37:55

Right, right, right?

SPEAKER_02 37:57

There's something so beautiful and sacred and primal and unique and special about that. You can kind of get there with a band, but with something as as magnanimous as a hundred person orchestra, like I like listening to um Brahm Symphony number four and the string section from that on the radio will still make me cry because there's just nothing like playing with 50 other string players and something that's just so beautiful and sweeping and written figure instrument. I am fortunate enough though, like I do truthfully, if like all things if they were like here, Carisa, what career do you want? Yes, I would do violin diva still, but I would also play viola and a string quartet. So I love string quartet, and I did start um a pop string quartet two, three years ago called Strings Nation. So I get it in there, right? And um, I won a grant last year with um the North to Shore Festival.

SPEAKER_03 38:55

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:56

And they're crazy. I was there two years ago. They gave me like this stupid amount of money and was like, what do you want to do with it? And I was like, I want to start an orchestra, like what? And I did it on the budget. I still don't know how we did it on that budget, Jesus. But um, we did like celebrating black black music month music on all the black black orchestral music across the black music spectrum. And so we did like Earth Wind and Fire faces. Oh Jesus, transcribing faces was good Lord. Um, and we did like uh my arrangement of Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child. We did a hip hop suite with like uh you know all the hip hop stuff that has strings in it, and it was really it was really, really good and really fun. It was about 30 people on stage and two singers. So I I guess I I always joke and say, like, it's always so nice when I get to just show up aga at a gig and just be the violinist. Because for whatever reason, God has my life where I just tend to be the one who's always creating the spaces, right? Right. Which is just you know as a different side of work, um, side of the work. But um I guess I wind up, especially in the years recently, I I wind up creating those those group spaces for me to play in ensembles because you miss it, so you know, and the ensembles that I want to see, right?

SPEAKER_03 40:18

That's true.

SPEAKER_02 40:19

I want to see an orchestra rocking black orchestra music that has like flavor to it.

SPEAKER_03 40:24

On another note, just off of that, did you get to see, and this was some years ago at this point, when uh PJ Morton had the live with the black orchestra?

SPEAKER_02 40:33

No, oh, it was amazing. I can imagine because I love the way PJ writes, yeah, exactly. You have to have a certain approach to writing, yeah. And I know a lot of people are like dabbling in it now these days, but not everybody has a legit writing. I can just imagine already because I know how PJ writes.

SPEAKER_03 40:51

You can you can tell he's uh heavily influenced by Stevie, you know what I mean? So you hear it in the chords and the changes, and the orchestra, they they just would add a lot of things. They were amazing. Oh my gosh, it did.

SPEAKER_02 41:03

The other day I heard um, and I'd never heard of it before, but my kids were studying Louis Armstrong and what a wonderful world that tune. And I was just going down the YouTube rabbit hole, and I heard John Baptiste with the National Symphony doing a version of it that was yeah, and I and and now you so you say that about PJ, but I think about how John writes, and I'm like, of course it sounded like that because that's that's just who he is. He's not you know doing anything great. That literally is how he writes, but it was perfectly sublime and orchestral and all you're not just like okay, I'm I'm gonna play in front and the orchestra gonna back me up, but like he became a part of that sonicscape in a different kind of way.

SPEAKER_03 41:45

No, that's dope. And he's a master too. I I think I want to do at least one project with orchestra. Yeah. Because honestly, it's it's I had I had multiple orchestra uh uh experiences at Westminster. Like we had a symphonic choir, of course, we would go sing Beethoven's Ninth, and we did uh they did like Britain War Requiem and you know, just a bunch of these big, big choir pieces. But there there was one we got to do Magnificat, back Bach Magnificat at Carnegie Hall, and that was one of my favorite experiences. One, you got to see the uh, I think Bryn Turfle was the was the baritone, if I'm not mistaken, but it was just enough, it was just a different experience. Bach is the I want to say Marietta Simpson was the soprano. It was just it was just a great experience of first of all, yeah. Bach is just Bach is the master.

SPEAKER_02 42:41

They say he wrote the rules, and so you know he's the literally at the end of his life, 1750, they said that is the end of the era, dropped the mic, we have now moved into something else. Now we gotta move on, exactly. That that was it. There's no more to be said on that. There's no more to be said. Sorry, Baroque, you're done. Exactly, and that was it, and then 1751 was something else, right?

SPEAKER_03 43:02

And again, it was it was I mean, the piece was great, of course, but the experience because that was in a smaller group. I was in a one of the uh chamber groups called Westminster Singers, and we with Westminster Choir, which is the other chamber group, we were the with a choir because it didn't recall, it didn't need a big choir, it just needed a big, a little ensemble. And that was one of my favorite experiences with orchestra. But you know, I I would love to do like a soul orchestra.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

Uh like I've I've seen somebody need an arranger, I'll call you.

SPEAKER_03 43:36

Oh, absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 43:38

Oh my god, a rain making those arrangements myself.

SPEAKER_03 43:40

I love it. But yeah, so what what was one of your highlights? What was one of your favorite experiences that you can think? Because I'm sure you got plenty.

SPEAKER_02 43:49

Man, uh one of my favorite experiences um was when I just I got booed off the Apollo. Like three times.

SPEAKER_03 44:01

Wow. That's your favorite.

SPEAKER_02 44:03

And well, well, listen, this is into the story. I got booed off the stage three times. And you know what people do is they'd like invite all their friends and like stack the audience.

SPEAKER_03 44:11

Yeah, that's the key.

SPEAKER_02 44:12

So I invited my friends.

SPEAKER_03 44:14

That's the key to the Apollo.

SPEAKER_02 44:16

Second time, third time. I invited them all and I got booed right off. And one of those times, you know, this funny part of the story. One of those times, Jay used to play in the house Apollo band. He was playing the band. And he's like, baby, I'm sorry. And he's playing the boo music. As his wife gets booed off the book.

SPEAKER_03 44:35

Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 44:36

I was like, it's okay. I'm gonna stay married to you. Don't worry. But the there was a like maybe after that third time, there was maybe like two, three months later. The the stage manager, the show manager called me and she's like, listen, Carissa, we had a last minute cancellation. I know you're close. And she knew me from me and Jay. She's like, can you just come in and and do it and be a competitor? And I was like, Again. And she's like, no, come on. Like, I re and she really knew, and I was like, All right, all right, all right. For you, I'll I'll do it. So I went over and I at that point I didn't call nobody, didn't tell nobody nothing. Jay knew because he was on the stage.

SPEAKER_04 45:16

Right.

SPEAKER_02 45:16

And I just threw it all down on the stage and like almost like and and I I won that night. And so again, like those are the moments that I guess I I'm seeing a pattern to myself. Those are the moments that stick with me because it was not easy, but I stuck through it and pushed through it and was like and I was able to overcome in that. So that's one of those moments that sticks out. That was a favorite performance because it proved something to myself. Um I would say anytime I get to play with my guys doing my stuff on stage is always wonderful to me. Like I just love that, and we get to be creative in a different kind of way. And there's something that's I used to be afraid of doing your own music. There's something that's just special when you're like doing a show of your own stuff or your own arrangements um that's really special. So yeah, anytime you see Violin Diva out at like a festival these days or whatever, um, those are special to me. Yeah, and I would say too, anytime I get to play at Carnegie Hall, that's always special. Because that's um, I wrote we used to have write a book in in um elementary school, and my first write a book was about a little black girl who got to play Carnegie Hall. Wow. My mom still has the book somewhere in our house. Nice, and so anytime I get to play in that room, it's always really special to me. Because I was able to, you know, achieve the thing that I was dreaming of at five.

SPEAKER_03 46:45

That's amazing. That's great. Um, what do you think? Like, how how is it now? We talked about your husband being a musician as well, and a crazy big head.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

He can cook though too. That's oh see. He's a key. That helps. It definitely does.

SPEAKER_03 47:03

Now, what what how is navigating that? And then like also tell me about like what how do you navigate being a professional musician? Because there's there's a lot of people who are musicians and they've dedicated their life to it. But you know, I hear all the time people struggling as musicians.

SPEAKER_02 47:22

You mean being musicians and married or just being musicians peer?

SPEAKER_03 47:25

First, just tell me like about just you, how have you constructed a career that works for you time-wise for your family, but also being able to make a living?

SPEAKER_02 47:35

So, yeah, um, well, no matter what, you have to lean into what your skills are, right? And use all your skills in New York. I will say, New York is such a hustle mentality, so you kind of learn things like you don't have the luxury of like wasted skills or wasted time, right? You know what I mean? Like I go down south, and my mother has at least three rooms that they're just for show. She doesn't use. And I'm like, Mama, what? And she's like, you know, no, you're not allowed to sit on that couch. That's a good couch, and we just that's the front room, and we leave it. Wow, we don't have that luxury, right? Take a picture. We don't have luxury of wasted space in our life in New York. Um, and same thing with our time. So I heavily have leaned on, I I still am not certified. I probably could get certified if I wanted to, but um, I've found teaching, you mean teaching, right? But I built my life as a teaching artist, and I really do enjoy being a teaching artist, which is fine. So I've been a teaching artist in New York City Public Schools for 20 years, I've seen it all. That's another reason why I could get certified really quickly, because I have seen and lived through it all, right? Including a principal who got taken out of handcuffs.

SPEAKER_03 48:48

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 48:48

Yeah, I've seen it all. I've seen it all in New York City public schools. Um, but I believe so for me, um, in terms of being a freelancer, and this is for any creative, right? You want to create your anchor streams of income. And so I have my anchors throughout the week um that I do every week, and that gives me a certain baseline. You have to decide what your baseline is, and everybody has a certain level of risk that they're open to. Um, for me, I like to know that the mortgage is paid that time.

SPEAKER_03 49:20

Absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 49:22

First and foremost, maybe we be sitting in the house and the lights are off. Maybe we ain't got no extra food in the fridge. Right. But we there. Maybe I ain't got no money for the toll man, but the mortgage is paid.

SPEAKER_03 49:34

Right, right, right. You know what I mean? So we we we're not in the rain or the snow or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 49:39

So if anything else, I know that that bill is paid, and that's where most of my anchor money goes to.

SPEAKER_01 49:45

Right.

SPEAKER_02 49:45

And then in terms of Violin Diva and um my auxiliary income, then that becomes all the other um auxiliary ways that I make money throughout the month, working for other people, doing recording sessions, doing events, um, building my brand, grants, hello grants, um, to finance your creative projects, any other way that I can create my business structure um with auxiliary income. That's the stuff that supplements. So, yeah, that's that's my foundation. Now, even my husband, I'm telling y'all the T. Even my husband, he he's less risk-averse than me. So he really doesn't have that many anchors, right? So he's just out there drumming for his life.

SPEAKER_03 50:31

Always, but he has some pretty good gigs. He does, so I mean, like I know, I know some of the gigs.

SPEAKER_02 50:38

He does, but it's just interesting to see like two creatives, like, even though we're two. Approaching it totally different. We approach it very differently.

SPEAKER_03 50:43

But y'all got different instruments too.

SPEAKER_02 50:45

We have different instruments, and we just have like I to me, I always, especially like now, like I said, we're 18 years and married. Yeah. Um, it's just interesting to see, like, we definitely have a different level of risk aversion. Yeah. Like, I just can't be out there playing every day. Right. That just that would drive me crazy. I'm I I I am playing every day, but I don't have to play every day. Yeah, I hear that. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 51:10

So yeah, it's interesting. I mean, I I I you know I've been teaching for 25 years. And, you know, I actually I'm happy because I was able to navigate gigs, mini tours. I ain't never been able to go on no big tour because I've been teaching for so long. Yep. But but I've been, you know, I've been on some significant gigs and and you know, got to play at some some nice churches and stuff like that. And I mean, you know, at the end, it's all what do you like to do? Or what do you enjoy doing? What can you navigate? How risk averse are you?

SPEAKER_02 51:49

What skill set do you have?

SPEAKER_03 51:50

Yeah, that too.

SPEAKER_02 51:51

Is that skill set in demand and viable? And these are like basic business questions when you start talking about valuation and price fixing and all those things. Like, if you you could uh matter of fact, I was just having this conversation with another violinist the other day. She said she got called for this nice little gig in um in North Jersey, and they were paying, she gave her quote and they were paying a nice rate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And um, she saw on the guest list that this other violinist was one of their friends, and she was on the guest list, and she said on the deal, hey, like, why don't you call her? And like, oh baby, because her quote was like$7,000. And so same person was charging$7,000 for two hours versus what she was charging. Right, right, right. Um, so you can charge seven thousand dollars for two hours if you're worth it. That's your value.

SPEAKER_03 52:52

That's your value, absolutely, but and if they're gonna pay it.

SPEAKER_02 52:54

But that's what I was about to say. But if the market is not willing to bear that seven thousand dollars, then you probably got a smaller window of opportunity, then you you're gonna need to adjust. And that's with anything.

SPEAKER_03 53:05

Well, if you want to work, right. Some people just like nah, if it ain't this price, I'm not working.

SPEAKER_02 53:09

And I have met that person before where she's like, Well, listen, my my work is eight thousand dollars, and some people will pay it. Yeah, absolutely. And if she gets three, eight thousand dollar gigs in the year, yeah. That's and and she's comfortable with that, then okay.

SPEAKER_03 53:27

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 53:28

But others of us might need something.

SPEAKER_03 53:30

You know what? That means I'm sitting home for about 362 days. I could be making some other money.

SPEAKER_02 53:38

And so you have to consider like what the market will bear, and um, and if things if if people are willing to buy what you're selling.

SPEAKER_03 53:47

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 53:48

At that rate, yeah. So all of those things need to be considered when you start talking about how you set up your income streams and know that, and I will say this because this didn't click for me until what, 10 years ago, when I really started, I shifted from just being a violinist to being what I call now an artist entrepreneur where you are operating as a business.

SPEAKER_04 54:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:09

Um, know that you are in the business of making money and you have a responsibility to yourself to lay that foundation however it looks like, and you are selling a product that you want people to buy.

SPEAKER_03 54:25

Absolutely. It's crazy because there's some musicians who don't really understand that they are business, and even I would say, even from the small uh detail of, and there's two ways to do this either actually uh creating a business entity or just creating a business account, business uh bank account because you don't have to have an entity to be a business, you can have a business bank account that's separate from your personal, and just that you are a business. And you can, you know, you can have some things you can file under like sole proprietorship, but like LLC, you take that stuff seriously, you could at least be mitigating all your expenses, so at least pay less in taxes, at least keeper tax is my best friend.

SPEAKER_02 55:12

Yeah, yeah, I love that thing because it scans my bank account is like and all of this is deductible on the give me my money back.

SPEAKER_03 55:20

That's why you got to see yourself as a business. I mean, every instrument you buy, I mean, you don't you you found your instrument, but every like string you have to replace, or but like if you're in a keyboard like me, we we buy new keyboards every few years and you know, pedals and if my husband buys one more drum, this is for you.

SPEAKER_02 55:37

Oh, yeah, he's a drummer. Buy one more drum set, one more drum set.

SPEAKER_03 55:41

I have a I have a friend, you probably know Drew. You know Drew, you guys know Andrew? Drew. Uh, what's Drew's last name? I can't think he's a drummer though. But he has he has like, I don't know, probably I can't even count how many drum sets.

SPEAKER_02 55:55

I'm like Jay has like seven.

SPEAKER_03 55:56

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's normal, that's normal. That's par for the course as a drummer.

SPEAKER_02 56:00

You are not a piccolo player, sir. You are not a piccolo player. But you know, but where are we gonna put any more drum sets? And he's looking at me right now and saying, Psh, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 56:10

But but you know, you get inspired, you know, by sounds and you know, I like this deep dish snare.

SPEAKER_02 56:16

I wanted in purple sparkle to go with the new that I bought.

SPEAKER_03 56:21

That part is interesting, but you know, hey, it's your it's your stuff, you know. Just like you said, you find an instrument that talks to you.

SPEAKER_02 56:28

Stop making excuses for him.

SPEAKER_03 56:30

Let me ask you this question. Um, what because we're talking about this thing, um, some musicians don't necessarily pivot when it's time to. And like you said about um New York and just not being having the luxury of leaving anything kind of unused. Um, I think, I mean, I had to learn so many different things. I had to learn new software at some points. Like, okay, this is the new standard, I have to go learn it. And you'd be reluctant to it sometimes because you get used to things. But how important is pivoting? Like, have you ever had to deal with pivoting from well for sure.

SPEAKER_02 57:05

I mean, the biggest pivot of my life was um was when I decided that I needed something more than classical music in my life. And I went looking for I at the time I did not know what it was, I couldn't have encapsulated it. But what I was looking for was my own voice in the musical world, and it happened by way of jazz and exploring that. But even now, like I I laugh because I I swing when I practice. I'm trying to give licks, yeah. I swing to practice, but most of the time on a violin divagate, you're not gonna hear me swing. I'm more like a fusion jazz chick, a la, like say Esperanza Spalding or Lasp or something like that. Um and but it so that's where my musical voice landed, but I had to pivot because I knew like it wasn't that I couldn't have stayed in class school, but I felt unsatisfied and I wanted, I was looking for something. So you do take a risk, like maybe you will never find it. Maybe that's this is all there is. Um, but maybe there's more. And I'm so glad I did. Um, and I even when you were just talking about the business thing, the thing that I thought in my mind was, you know, people will hire you to be a specialist, like they want your specialty, right? But reality is that you're a specialist that they hire, but you have to have all those other skills right on the auxiliary to be able to use to accomplish what they need. And half the time, we're honest, people don't even really know what it is that they need, right? Yeah, even the the most popular, and you and I know this really well, like the most popular, highest echelon artist, recording artist today will come and be like, Oh yeah, some more, I need you to do this thing for me. Can you do and has no idea all the other things that it takes to accomplish what they're looking for, right? But your job is to, yeah, is to put it together and to put it together for her so that she don't have to worry about it, and it sounds exactly like she heard it and had and bring that vision to life.

SPEAKER_03 59:15

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 59:16

So, yeah, you have to be a specialist, but you have to have all of those other skill set. And so to speak to your pivot, yeah, I like they might hire the violin diva, but maybe they hire the violin diva on the composition side, or they hire the violin diva plus her arranging gifts, or they hire the violin diva for the Rolodex that I've built of incredible string players over 20 years in New York who do all sorts of interesting, amazing, creative things because my friends are dope. And they need access to 16 string players tomorrow.

SPEAKER_03 59:50

Right.

SPEAKER_02 59:51

And you can't find that putting an ad out on Facebook.

SPEAKER_03 59:54

You need to have you have to have a network for that.

SPEAKER_02 59:56

You have to have a network for that. And so, yeah, I mean, like, yeah, you gotta be able to pivot all the time. It's definitely one of, I would say, just like um, just like the other soft skill about grit we were talking about before, to be able to pivot and be whatever the client needs you to be in that moment, or whatever the opportunity needs you to be in that moment, um, is is essential. I love that Stephen Sondheim quote from um Into the Woods where he says, Opportunity will knock, but she's never a lengthy visitor.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:26

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:27

So you gotta be ready, man. Like, yeah, she'll knock. But if, hey, if I need the crease arranger and you're like, well, I mean, I don't know how to arrange.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:36

Yeah, then thanks. Thanks for telling me you're not gonna.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:38

Oh my gosh, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:40

Thank you so much. Next to the book, exactly, exactly. Don't call her for that again. Wrong person. Yo, no, that's absolutely right. I mean, so many times told. I'll be honest with you. You know, I'm um I I consider myself because you get like a little street smart from the hood, you're like, yeah, you don't you don't say no to anything, especially opportunities. You're like, you know what? If I don't know it, I'm gonna learn it. If I can't learn it, I'm gonna find the right person. But I'm still the person who's gonna get it done. Yep, you know, so that's that's just skipping.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:12

At this point, and be both, right? At this point, like you have enough network where I may not know how to do it today, but I know who to call. Absolutely. And I actually I hear Jay all the time with those conversations. We're like, yo, this plugin is not working and it's driving me crazy. How do I fix it? And I'm like, okay, man, and they sit for 30 minutes and they figure it out on the phone together. He's like, Okay, bet. And he goes off and does whatever he needs to do on that gig that he was talking about. Yep, that's that's how you do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:38

I wonder, um, how does how does your husband navigate this? Because I know he does, he's always been a producer too. Does he bring all of those skills to all of his things or just to like still just produce himself mostly? Or he brings everything? Absolutely, that's important.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:53

Even when and I will say this, and it's not just because he's my boo, but honestly, he is one of the few drummers I know, and I've seen him in every situation now, right? For 20 years, he authentically sits down and plays every musical genre authentic to that genre. Yeah, he real like so. You see, I've seen him play with the the whalers, and he they were like, What island are you from? He likes Philadelphia, Philadelphian. He plays on the rock gig, and he played with some of the cats from the Rolling Stones, and he uh he sounds like he's like a heavy rock, like Seattle Portland kid. Yeah, um, he authentically plays every musical genre, and he's been told multiple times from multiple people that he plays the drums like a producer, so it's like he's producing in real time, yeah. As he's because you know, drums is one of those instruments in the band that can alter the overall soundscape.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:54

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:54

And so you have to approach it a particular kind of way or you'll disrupt everything, right? And so literally having that mentality when you're sitting on the drums and you're like producing almost in real time, that definitely is a boon to your artist because you're creating a soundscape that works in m many different environments and is reflective of that.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:14

So it's crazy when you that you just said that because where I was talking on another one of these episodes about how like just my my experience in Philadelphia, like one being, you know, my one of my mentors is from Philadelphia, but also um when I I got to play for Jill Scott a few times in Philly, and the vibe in Philly is just so when it comes to music, I was just saying they're so serious. Like, I mean serious, like historically, um the instruments, the the the essence of the music, like they are so legitimate there. It's just like it's different, you know what I mean? It's just different, it's different in New York, different in New Jersey. It's just like there's an authenticity that it's like you can't you can't vibe without it. Like it's just there.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:05

Which is why Philly's soul is so indicative, like such a stand up. Oh, yeah, it's it has its own thing. It's just there.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:11

Yep, yep. Um, I mean, it's it's amazing. First, thank you for coming.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:16

Yeah, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:18

Anything I know we're gonna have you played something since you're here, but um, anything else you want to share? Like, you have any projects that we should be looking for?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:25

I am at some point this year, most likely in June, releasing um my project called the Blackity Black EP. Blackity Black EP. Blackity Black, because we really black, we doing it black. Um, we are releasing it, it's a like a celebration of um black music and my interpretation of protest songs from across the eras. I wrote in particular um this arrangement of um Inner City Blues by Marvin.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:56

Marvin, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:57

Um, I just it was during the pandemic I got a grant. There were a lot of beautiful artist grants at that time, and I got a grant, so I went in the studio and recorded a couple tunes, and that was one of them. And if you remember, like that time and how it felt, and it was so heavy, and all your artistic stuff was like pinned up in you, and so there's like this like primal raw part aspect of it, um, that just got captured in one take. Wow, and my I remember my engineer was furious at me because it wasn't supposed to be the take. I was like guiding the band through what I want them to do. So my my door, my door to the isolation booth was open. And so he had to like cut out all the all of your notes, all the bleeding from the drums and everything. Yeah, but I was like, I will never be able to sing it like that again. You have to you have to fix it. Wow. So he fixed it. He did. He works, he's amazing. Andre Betts in hot heck and sack. He's he's magical, so he worked it out, but. Yeah, so that's one of that's gonna be probably the lead single off of that record. So we're gonna do that in June June. And then I have a many amazing shows and stuff coming through the rest of the year.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:11

And where can they where can people see you or like I'm sure they can look you up and see some of your concerts online?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:16

Yeah, I mean Google Carisa the Violin Diva or just the Violin Diva because no one can ever spell my name. That's why I um Google Google Carisa the Violin Diva. I pop up all over the place. Um you'll find me. But my website is theviolindiva.com. That's www.th.a dot com. And of course on Instagram, I am the underscore violin diva or on Facebook also Carisa the Violin Diva.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:47

Amazing. So I I support her, she's amazing. If you get to see her live, it's a treat. She's amazing. And she sings too.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:55

I sing all the time.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:56

So, you know, it's not just violin, which we're gonna hear some violin. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:01

I don't know what I'm gonna play.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:03

Hey, whatever you play is gonna be nice. It's crazy you brought up the the inspiration behind your project that you're gonna release. I have an EP that I've been kind of like pushing to put out for about probably like since the pandemic myself, like several of the songs on there. And there's a few songs on there that are it's crazy because it's almost like they're circling back around to being relevant again.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:28

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:28

It's like, oh, okay, I can still put this out right now and it's relevant. Like I have a song called Two Winners, which basically is about the dilemma of being Christian and being black in America. Oh which that's an unpacking thing right here. But but the but the song is a whole nother podcast. Yeah, that's a whole nother part. That's the blackity black podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:52

I would have popped that be over when I release this. We can talk about it.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:56

Yeah, yeah, we gotta talk about it. But thank you, Carisa. And whatever you like to play, we would love to hear.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:50

Thanks for listening. To stay up to date between episodes, follow us on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, and make sure you're subscribed to our YouTube channel. If you liked what you heard today, or if there's something specific you want us to dive into next, leave us a comment. Catch you in the next episode.