Brendan Slocumb > Quotes

“Who you are goes far beyond what you look like. My hope is that Ray’s story will inspire all of you—white or Black, Asian or Native American, straight or gay, transgender or cisgender, blond or dark haired, tall or short, big feet or small—to do what you love. Inspire those around you to do what they love, too. It might just pay off. Alone, we are a solitary violin, a lonely flute, a trumpet singing in the dark. Together, we are a symphony.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“We’re here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“He would tell you that music is truly a universal language, and that we the listeners will always impose our own fears and biases, our own hopes and hungers on whatever we hear. He would tell you that the rhythm that spurred on Tchaikovsky is the same rhythm that a kid in a redneck North Carolina town would beat with a stick against a fallen tree. It is a rhythm in all of us. Music is about communication, a way of touching your fellow man, beyond and above and below language. It is a language all its own.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“Alone, we are a solitary violin, a lonely flute, a trumpet singing in the dark. Together, we are a symphony.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“You just work hard and be your own sweet self, you hear me? You stand up for yourself, but always respectfully. I want you to remember that. You stand up, you respect yourself, and you be respectful. That’s how you win.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“Don’t you ever apologize for being who you are or let someone make you feel bad for being Black.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“Precision and technique can be learned,” she told him. “That’s just practice. A lot of practice, but it’s still just practice. What we can’t teach is how to make a musician actually connect—emotionally connect—with the pieces he’s playing. To really care about the music, and let the music tell its story.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“Music is about communication—a way of touching your fellow man beyond and above and below language;”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“Music’s the gift. Caring’s the gift. And you give it to others now. There are a lot of ways apart from a concert hall to make a difference in someone’s life.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“Respect yourself and people will respect you, too.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“do what you love. Inspire those around you to do what they love, too. It might just pay off. Alone, we are a solitary violin, a lonely flute, a trumpet singing in the dark. Together, we are a symphony.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“Inspire those around you to do what they love, too. It might just pay off.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“And none of that mattered. No matter how nice the suit, no matter how educated his speech or how strong the handshake, no matter how much muscle he packed on, no matter how friendly or how smart he was, none of it mattered at all. He was just a Black person. That’s all they saw and that’s all he was.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“They could toss any piece of crappy music they wanted at him, and he would play. He would not be ignored, denied, or embarrassed ever again. He was a musician, and music had no color.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“Something ineffable happened when bow touched strings. What a marvel it was, the cello. Four tender lines, hovering in space--lines which, with the right pressure and force, could create music to rival the gods'. Those four strings, those miracles of physics, had been the closest he ever felt toward immortality.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Dark Maestro

“The truth was he’d won the moment he set foot on Russian soil, and now the world knew it. He may have come in second, but he’d gone further than any other American—Black or white. And he hadn’t taken lessons from age three, or attended music festivals at age ten, or been drilled relentlessly by elite private teachers.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“Alone, we are a solitary violin, a lonely flute, a trumpet singing in the dark. Together, we are a symphony.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“Every time the conductor raised his baton, new joy blossomed in his chest. Each note felt special, a gift.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“You can’t do that. That’s for white people. People like you aren’t supposed to like that kind of music. You’re not good enough. That violin is the only reason you’re here.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“Music is about communication—a way of touching your fellow man beyond and above and below language; it is a language all its own.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“Second, he learned that doing what you loved may not be enough, that all the passion and perseverance that roared like blood within you could be trumped by factors that you could never control—factors like the color of your skin, or the shape of your eyes, or the sound of your voice.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“Music is for everyone. It’s not—or at least shouldn’t be—an elitist, aristocratic club that you need a membership card to appreciate: it’s a language, it’s a means of connecting us that is beyond color, beyond race, beyond the shape of your face or the size of your stock portfolio. Musicians of color, however, are severely underrepresented in the classical music world—and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to write this book. Look up the statistics: 1.8 percent of musicians performing in classical symphonies are Black; 12 percent are people of color. But for me, day to day, performance by performance, it wasn’t about being a statistic: it was about trying to live my life and play the music that I loved, and often being”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“Josie. We’ve been through this. You know people wouldn’t want your music if they knew you were colored.” I don’t believe you, she thought hotly. They love music because it has all colors. But”
― Brendan Slocumb, Symphony of Secrets

“Secretly, Ray was a rotten celebrity. He never got used to it, never learned to take it for granted. The photos and adulation and program signing always made him uncomfortable, and after the theft he never ordered room service again. Every day, no matter where he was, he’d find a busker or someone on the street and leave money or help otherwise when he could. He was making a great deal of money and giving a lot of it away as quickly as he got it. He played charity concerts for several different organizations. He loved Kelly Hall-Tompkins’s Music Kitchen, a charity that organized musicians to serve food and play in soup kitchens, and he often volunteered—both to play and to serve the guests. Another charity bought instruments for students who couldn’t afford to buy their own: at the inaugural fundraising gala, he played for free, enlisted several musicians—Wynton Marsalis and Trombone Shorty—and donated a hundred thousand dollars to the cause.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“I think all I learned is that I just have to trust my gut and do what I do, and that means play.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“Baby, I am so proud of you. Your PopPop would be proud of you, too. I just can’t believe how good you play!”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“it’s a language, it’s a means of connecting us that is beyond color, beyond race, beyond the shape of your face or the size of your stock portfolio.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“We’re here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.” Ray would type it up and stick it on his refrigerator”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“When he’d first tried his hand at jazz, it was a mess. Like most classically trained musicians who relied on strict training, he was most comfortable following the road map that a composer laid out. Ray would pour himself onto the classical route, which had clear signposts and a yellow line down one side. With jazz, there were no signs; the GPS just said, “Go.” Jazz charts provided a simple melody he was just supposed to riff from—he wanted to read every note, lock in on each finger pattern. How would he even begin? He started by listening to the opening melody of a song, then adding a few notes in the same key, then changing the key for a while, then somehow, miraculously, returning to the original key, all while making it seem effortless. This took a lot of practice. When he thought he had it, he had to think again. It was fun, challenging, and exercised new muscles in his playing.”
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

“Ditmars”
― Brendan Slocumb, Symphony of Secrets