Mark O’Connor leaves Nashville to concentrate on his talent as a classical music composer
Nick Krewen
For The Record
June 3, 1999
Pssst. Wanna buy a house?
It’s a nice one, located in a private Nashville cul-de-sac about 10 minutes from Music Row.
An artist retreat, this 4100 sq. ft. cedar home contains three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a great room with a 26-foot ceiling, inset shelving, a staircase, a library loft, two skylights, decks galore and a spacious kitchen. The main bathroom contains a partially sunken Jacuzzi; another contains 24-karat gold bathroom fixtures and there are many other amenities that contribute towards its appraised value of $545,000 U.S.
The reason such luxurious quarters are on the market is because its owner, Mark O’ Connor, doesn’t need them anymore. After spending most of his career as one of the world’s most sought after fiddlers – guesting on more than 500 recording sessions, recording 20 solo albums on his own and traveling the world as a performer, sideman and composer, O’Connor, his wife and two sons have relocated to the sunny climes of San Diego.
“I wanted to get out of the rat race,” said O’Connor, 37, from his new San Diego digs. “Since I was no longer in that scene, living in it physically and mentally was a little tiresome. So I decided to go back out West where my wife and I came from. We had both lived in California before. We decided to set up home here and we’re really enjoying it.”
The Seattle-born O’Connor has been trying to distance himself from the Nashville studio community since the early ’90s, when he plunged into a solo career that has focused on his abilities as a classical music composer.
Until that point, O’Connor had literally been the man to call if you needed a fiddle on your session. If you bought a country album in the ’80s, check the album credits – he’s probably on there. He didn’t restrict himself to the country field, either, recording with artists as disparate as fusion rockers Dixie Dregs, Swiss new age harpist Andreas Vollenweider and bluegrass guitarist David Grisman.
“I’ve been turning down sessions since 1990,” O’Connor explains. “I do a lot of things to learn. That’s why I became a session player, because I wanted to learn how to do that. Now I know how, sessions don’t interest me anymore. I’ve already been down that road.”
Today he finds more satisfaction writing and recording his fiddle concertos and suites, composing chamber music or collaborating with celebrated cellist Yo-Yo Ma, jazz and classical trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, noted pop singer James Taylor, longtime doublebass associate Edgar Meyer or Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster. His most recent album, a solo performance effort called Midnight On The Water, entered the Billboard classical charts at No.5 in mid-May.
“I definitely want to be pegged as a solo artist,” says O’Connor, whose next album, Fanfare for the Volunteer, recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, will be out on Sony Classical in the fall.
“I think the biggest difference in becoming a solo artists is trying to figure out my voice on the fiddle.”
A child prodigy, O’Connor didn’t take up the fiddle until the age of 11, five years after learning guitar.
“I was definitely drawn to the violin because of its emotional depth,” he recalls. “I remember growing up and listening to Yehudi Menuhin, my mom’s favourite violinist. Then I saw Doug Kershaw on television and Vassar Clements play ‘House of the Rising Sun.’ I couldn’t believe the extremes that this wooden instrument could reach. The violin was the perfect vehicle for me.”
By the time he had reached high school, he had released four albums and had won every major fiddle competition in the U.S. In 1982, Chet Atkins suggested he relocate to Nashville and test session waters as a fiddler, guitarist and mandolin player. He was named Country Music Association’s Instrumentalist of the Year six times, and in 1990 was commissioned by the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival to write his Fiddle Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.
A former student of Texas fiddler Benny Thomasson and French jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli, O’Connor does his part to educate others. His week-long Mark O’Connor Fiddle Camps will be held June 20 and August 1 near Nashville, giving young fiddlers the opportunity – for $600 U.S. – to learn from such masters as Natalie MacMaster, Rachel Barton, Vassar Clements and Buddy Spicer.
As for Friday’s concert (at the River Run Centre in Guelph), O’Connor has the program picked out.
“I’ll play half the concert with my solo material, which is featured on my album Midnight On The Water, and then the other half is going to be with a string orchestra. I’m going to be performing a couple of pieces from The Liberty Project, a soundtrack I did for the six-part PBS series.”
Oh, and if you want to take a gander at a sketch of his former residence, visit O’Connor’s website at www.markoconnor.com.