of course, everyone learning to start the violin probably sounds a bit like a sick cat or something. at 13, he was the youngest ever winner of the prestigious sphinx prize, then studied under the renowned violinist itzhak perlman. but the music he's playing now champions black and african—american composers, a decision prompted by last yea r�*s black lives matter protests. i was feeling very, very sort of stuck, i was feeling useless and hopeless in the fight against systemic racism and prejudice and bias and all of these things. i didn't want to go out and march and protest. i just didn't feel like that was fulfilling. i needed something to validate what i was doing, you know? there was certainly the question of, "0k, whatam i doing, making a living playing works of, you know, dead european guys who haven't been around for a couple hundred years, who didn't know anything about my existence and didn't know anything about the existence of those who came before me?" this music answered that question. at the recent 9/11 memorial concert, he played one of those pieces — adoration by florence price. florence price, you know, had to pick up and move herfamily from her hometown of arkansas because of the segregation