PBS高端访谈:打破刻板印象的黑人小提琴手

（单词翻译）

JUDY WOODRUFF: When Kev Marcus and Wil B. met in a high school music class, they shared their desire to disrupt people's impressions of what classical music should be. Together, they formed a group called Black Violin, which we featured on the "NewsHour" early on in their success. Well, they're back in tonight's Brief But Spectacular, as part of our arts and culture coverage¹, Canvas.

WIL B., Black Violin: People ask me, what do I do? What's in this case? I tell them that it's a viola. It's a violin. And their response is, you don't play classical, do you?

WIL B.: Is that what you do?

KEV MARCUS, Black Violin: No.

WIL B.: With a serious face.

KEV MARCUS: Not you.

WIL B.: Not classical, right?

WIL B.: There's no way you ...

KEV MARCUS: Our whole life, everybody was like, even in my family, they were like, why you got -- you have Kevin playing the violin. It's not -- he's not supposed to be doing that. I always listen to those type of things, and I'm like, oh, well, I guess we're not supposed to be violinists because we're Black? Well, we're going to be the Blackest violinists you have ever seen. We approach it very, very classically. But -- so the violin part of it is always very baroque, Bach, Mozart-like, not much sliding, not much jazz. But the beats and everything that's around it is hard-hitting, dirty.

WIL B.: It's fun. It's very inclusive. We have people dancing in the aisles². Our music just really brings people together.

KEV MARCUS: We're able to blend and go between different genres³. And that's why it brings a really wide, large audience of people. I grew up in a tough neighborhood, and I guess my mom wanted me to get away from some of my friends, because I was going down the wrong path. So, she put me in this Saturday music program, with the hopes that I would get into the performing arts middle school, so I would be bussed away from my friends. And that's exactly what ended up happening. I went to performing arts school and just was able to focus on violin.

WIL B.: I went to the class my first day, and I noticed all these wood instruments. I was looking for the cool instruments, the saxophones and the trumpets⁴. And they told me that I got put in this class. And we were stand partners. And, obviously, I was first ...

KEV MARCUS: You know the truth.

WIL B.: I was better.

WIL B.: We have always really fed off each other and competed against each other, and we made each other better.

KEV MARCUS: We have always just made good music. Every time we get together, the vibe was always right. So, I feel like, looking back, it kind of made sense that we would have a 20-year career together now, because that's how it was in high school. My college professor, my first day of class, gives me a tape back, in 1999. He tells me, go home and listen to this tape and then come tell me about it next week. So, I pop this tape in. And it's like a violin on fire, like a violin with soul. And I never heard a violin played like that before. But when I listened to it, I could tell it was a Black guy playing it. And I never had that experience with the violin. So, it just changed my entire perception of what the violin could do. And I gave the tape to Wil. And he was vibing it too. Many years later, we named ourselves after the inspiration, the thing that changed our entire perception. This tape was recorded by a violinist. His name was Stuff Smith. This is his last album he recorded before he died. And that album was called "Black Violin." That album changed the way we perceived the violin, so now the main Black Violin continues to change and challenge people's perceptions.

WIL B.: There's nothing like doing something that you absolutely love and affecting people at the same time. No amount of Grammys, no amount of money can really do that for you.

KEV MARCUS: Now, ultimately, I have always played the violin because no one expects me to do it. And I liked changing people's perceptions of what is possible. We are Black Violin. I am Kev Marcus.

WIL B.: Wil Baptiste.

KEV MARCUS: And this has been our Brief But Spectacular take on defying stereotypes⁵.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Educating a lot of us about the violin. Thank you, both.

朱迪·伍德拉夫：当凯夫·马库斯和威尔·B在高中音乐课堂上相遇时，他们都想打破人们对古典音乐的印象。他们一起组成了一个名为“黑人小提琴”的组合，在他们取得成功的早期，我们就在《新闻一小时》上报道了这个组合。好吧，他们再次做客《简短而精彩》，作为我们的艺术和文化报道“帆布”的嘉宾。

“黑人小提琴”组合威尔·B：人们问我，我是做什么的？这个箱子里是什么？我告诉他们这是中提琴，这是一把小提琴。他们的回答是，你演奏古典音乐，不是吧？

威尔·B：你是干这行的？

“黑人小提琴”组合凯夫·马库斯：不。

威尔·B：我是认真的。

凯夫·马库斯：不是你。

威尔·B：你不是演奏古典音乐的，对吧？

威尔·B：你不可能……

凯夫·马库斯：在我们的一生中，每个人都是这种态度，甚至我的家人也是，他们都不明白为什么凯夫要演奏小提琴。不是——他不应该这么做。我总是听到这种话，我想，哦，好吧，因为我们是黑人，所以我们就不能成为小提琴手？好吧，我们将成为你们见过的皮肤最黑的小提琴手。我们演奏的方式也很经典，但是——小提琴演奏总是很巴洛克、巴赫、莫扎特式的，并非是爵士乐那种的。但是节奏和它周围的一切都是有力的。

威尔·B：很有趣，很包容。有人在过道上跳舞，我们的音乐真的能把人们聚在一起。

凯夫·马库斯：我们能够融合不同的流派。这就是为什么它能吸引大量的观众。我在一个复杂的环境长大，我觉得我妈妈希望我远离我的一些朋友，因为我走错了路。所以她让我参加了这个星期六的音乐课，希望我能进入表演艺术中学，这样我就可以远离我的朋友了，结果就是这样。我上的是表演艺术学校，然后专心练习小提琴。

威尔·B：我第一天去上课的时候注意到了所有这些木制乐器。我在找很酷的乐器，我看到了萨克斯管和小号。他们告诉我，我被安排进了这个班。我们是搭档，显然，我是第一个……

凯夫·马库斯：你知道真相。

威尔·B：我更好。

威尔·B：我们一直都是亦敌亦友，我们让彼此变得更好。

凯夫·马库斯：我们一直都在创作好音乐。每次我们聚在一起的时候，气氛都是对的。回顾过去，我们共同度过了20年的职业生涯是有道理的，因为高中就是这样。1999年，我的大学教授在我第一天上课时给了我一盘磁带。他让我回家听这盘磁带，下周再来和他讲。所以，我把这盘带子放进去。这把小提琴好像被点燃了，这是一把有灵魂的小提琴。我从来没听过小提琴能像这样演奏。但当我听的时候，我能分辨出是一个黑人在演奏。我从未有过小提琴演奏的经历。所以它改变了我对小提琴的理解。我把带子给了威尔，他也感受到了。许多年后，我们以灵感命名了我们的组合，灵感改变了我们的整个认知。这盘磁带是一位名叫斯塔夫·史密斯的小提琴家录的。这是他生前录制的最后一张专辑，那张专辑叫做《黑人小提琴》。那张专辑改变了我们对小提琴的看法，所以现在的黑人小提琴也一直在改变和挑战人们的认知。

威尔·B：没有什么比做一件你绝对喜欢的事同时又能影响别人更好的了。再多的格莱美奖，再多的金钱也不能真正为你做到这一点。

凯夫·马库斯：现在我一直在拉小提琴，因为没人指望我会拉。我喜欢改变人们对可能的看法。我们是“黑人小提琴”，我是凯夫·马库斯。

威尔·B：我是威尔·巴普蒂斯特。

凯夫·马库斯：这是我们对打破陈规定型观念的“简短而精彩”的尝试。

朱迪·伍德拉夫：他们教了我们很多关于小提琴的知识，谢谢他们。