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Being a woman violinist, I’ve often noticed the love affair between women and their violins, and thought it would be an interesting thing to investigate.   This love transcends genre, age, and level;  I’ve taught adult beginners who are passionately devoted to their $200 fiddles and I’ve watched as my Julliard-trained classical violinist friends have struggled to find the perfect violin (worth thousands of dollars).  I’ve played my own since I was 15 and taken it all over the world with me.  It’s probably spent more hours cradled in my arms than any lover I’ve ever had.

Don’t ask me how this came up in conversation at my friend Malinda’s dinner party, but the next thing I knew I was creating a piece for Make Music New York, a city-wide event of free music on June 21.  I called it X VIOLINS AND THE WOMEN WHO LOVE THEM.   X VIOLINS (x being the number of violins, since it’s different every time) is an open collaboration of women violinists of all styles and levels.  Between every piece there is text, culled from highly personal questionnaires filled out by the participants:  how we started playing, where we got our instruments, and highlights/disasters of our violin relationships.  With much help from the amazing violinist Melissa Tong, we premiered at MMNY ‘09.

Last week we got a call to perform at Gracie Mansion, the official residence of Mayor Bloomberg, at a dinner he was hosting to honor NYC volunteers.

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Gothamist and Time Out NY both have great slideshows of photos from yesterday’s Make Music New York. Celebrating a third year, MMNY is an all-day festival that brings live music out from the confines of traditional venues and into the public sphere. The day boasts hundreds of musicians, of varying genres and types, playing in all five boroughs. More along the lines of theory that applies to contemporary visual art, MMNY plays on the intersection of music and shared space. I may be putting words in the mouth of MMNY’s organizers, but I am nearly certain that the events, besides brightening up the city landscape, are a statement on the way that live performance is radically altered by audiences that haven’t bought tickets; instead, they are confronted with music along routes they frequent in their everyday life. The change demands listeners become active participants in the music, or at least experience music in a new and dynamic way. Likewise, the process of playing and creating music is changed for the musician, as there is no divide by stage or studio.

Plenty of bold players braved the horrible weather to participate in this year’s MMNY. Girls in Trouble’s Alicia Jo Rabins was part of X Violins and the Women Who Love Them yesterday, of which there is a photo above. Personally, I stumbled upon lots of little events going on throughout the day, and spent a good part of my evening at Le Poisson Rouge’s MMNY afterparty. Did you see any great music yesterday? Tell us about it!