Regina Carter
Violinist Regina Carter is scheduled to perform at the rescheduled Menuhin Competition in Richmond in 2021. (Photo by Christopher Drukker)
The prestigious Menuhin Competition was set to gather young violinists from around the globe along with a bevy of preeminent musicians to participate in an 11-day international music festival. We now know it’s been pushed to next year instead of next month, due to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Before the uncertainty ensued, acclaimed solo jazz violinist and scheduled performer Regina Carter shared with Richmond magazine her journey from 4-year-old prodigy to becoming the world’s foremost figure in jazz violin and a serendipitous encounter with the festival’s namesake, celebrated violinist Yehudi Menuhin.
Richmond magazine: Do you have any ties to Richmond?
Regina Carter: Yes, I do. I’ve played in Richmond several times. In fact, my husband, drummer Alvester Garnett, was born and raised in Richmond and went to VCU.
RM: So where did it all begin for you?
Carter: In Detroit. When I was in kindergarten, my older brothers were taking piano lessons, and I walked up to the piano and just started playing a piece they were working on. They were shocked. No one even knew I could play. My teacher tested me and told my mother and me I had a gift. She would try to teach me how to read music, and I would always come to my lessons and draw these big circles that looked like dinosaur eggs, color them in and say that was my composition. Because I wasn’t really learning how to read music and resisting, she told my mother to let me practice at home because she thought having lessons pushed on me would destroy my creativity and turn me off to all of it.
RM: How did you end up playing violin?
Carter: That same teacher told my mother the Suzuki method was being taught for strings for the first time in Detroit. She thought it would be perfect for me because you learn by ear. I don’t why, but the first instrument they handed me was a violin, and I loved it.
RM: You were playing and studying classical music. How did jazz come into it?
Carter: In high school, my whole thing was to be a classical violinist. In ninth grade my dearest friend, Carla Cook — who’s an amazing jazz vocalist — would always talk about Miles Davis, Eddie Jefferson, Sarah Vaughn. I didn’t know who any of these people were, but she brought me three records. They were Jean-Luc Ponty, Noel Pointer and Stéphane Grappelli. All jazz violinists. I heard those records and said, ‘Oh, my god, this is so cool. This is what I want to do.’ So now I have this jazz bug, but my mother said, 'No, you are going to get in somebody’s orchestra, get a pension and health insurance.' My teacher at the time told me I was going to ruin my career.
RM: Tell me about your experience at the New England Conservatory in Boston.
Carter: I didn’t do well in Boston. I just really didn’t know how to learn this music yet. There was no campus, and it was my first time experiencing racism in my face. I couldn’t handle that, so I went back home and finished at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. I went to the jazz band director, told him I wanted to play jazz, and he put me in the saxophone section so I could learn how to breathe and phrase and learn the language. At Oakland, there was a thriving jazz scene. We were exposed to all these amazing musicians. After college in Detroit, musicians like trumpeter Marcus Belgrave would run these camps out of their houses where young musicians would just go and learn about composing, soloing and playing with others. He would take us out on gigs. That’s how I really learned this music, on the jazz scene in Detroit.
RM: Tell me about meeting Yehudi Menuhin.
Carter: Yehudi Menuhin was a guest soloist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and my teacher had him come in to give our high school quartet a masterclass. Afterward, he said to Menuhin [about me], ‘Yeah, she wants to play jazz, she’s going to ruin her career.' I remember Yehudi Menuhin picked up his violin and played a little blues lick and said, ‘Leave her alone.’ I will never forget that moment. I could have hugged him.
