From a Florida orchestra classroom to downtown Jacksonville: Black Violin opens up the possibilities

Two teenagers met in a Fort Lauderdale orchestra classroom. Thirty years after they met, their partnership is bringing violin, viola and hip-hop to downtown Jacksonville—and showing how much room there is to make a musical life your own.

Black Violin performs at the Florida Theatre on Wednesday, October 14, at 7:30 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for the evening with special guest Braxton Cook at 128 E. Forsyth Street.

For Jacksonville listeners, this is a chance to hear a Florida-born act whose sound makes space for several musical loves at once. Violinist Kev Marcus and violist and vocalist Wil Baptiste combine orchestral training with the rhythms they grew up listening to. The result gives strings a place alongside hip-hop, funk and jazz, with no requirement that the audience arrive knowing the vocabulary of any of them.

Editor's note: A school music room can be the beginning of a lasting creative partnership.

The duo met in 1996 at Dillard High School of the Performing Arts. After attending different Florida universities, they reunited and began making music together. Their early hip-hop string arrangements led to club performances, appearances on Showtime at the Apollo and a career that has continued across albums and concert stages.

Their latest album, Full Circle, grew from bringing their touring band into the studio with producer Phil Beaudreau. In their official biography, Baptiste describes that shared creative process as a change from how they had recorded before. The project offers a way into their current work before the Jacksonville show: listen to what happens when the players have room to shape the music together.

That openness extends to young people learning to play. Marcus and Baptiste launched the Black Violin Foundation in 2019 to expand access to music education. Its programs include grants and instrument support, giving their belief in young musicians a practical form beyond the concert hall.

The foundation's Dreamer Instrument Access Grant, developed with Baroque Violin Shop, focuses on violin and viola students who need an instrument of their own or a better instrument to continue their training. For a family weighing the expense of a child's musical interests, that is a tangible kind of encouragement: equipment can be a barrier even when enthusiasm and effort are already there. The program's published 2026 application deadline has passed; families can follow the foundation for future opportunities.

Editor's note: Black Violin’s foundation supports access to instruments and music education.

For local students and the adults who encourage them, the duo's history gives the night another dimension. A school music room can be the beginning of a lasting creative partnership. A familiar instrument can carry the sounds a young person already loves. Those possibilities are worth bringing into the conversation around a concert like this.

Cook adds another reason to make the trip downtown. The alto saxophonist and singer-songwriter works across jazz and R&B, bringing his own musical perspective as the announced special guest. This is an evening to discover both acts.