Brief stats: senior music education major from Columbus, Ohio
Where you’ve seen him: Lawrence Symphony Orchestra, numerous soundboards, his folk band Roll On Columbia, currently on “brief retirement,” the board of the Lawrence chapter of the Collegiate Music Educators National Conference, Performers Against Injury Now, and the music education representative and the chair person of the Dean’s Advisory Council.
Wilson: Wow that’s a lot of chairs.
King: Yeah, I sit well.
Wilson: So exactly how many instruments do you play these days?
King: Violin, viola, jaw-harp, spoons, jugs and singing — exclusively Aretha Franklin.
Wilson: Jugs? How did you get into playing the jugs?
King: I have this fiddle student who’s played folk music for 30-40 years and he plays jugs in a jug band in town, so I gave him fiddle lessons and he gave me jug lessons.
Wilson: That’s fantastic. So you’re part of the “string project.” Could you explain what that is?
King: It’s an after-school strings program through the Lawrence Academy of Music taught by Lawrence students for a lower fee, so it attracts some of the more underprivileged students from the area.
Wilson: What are your favorite types of music to play? You run a pretty broad spectrum of instruments …
King: I like music that is multifaceted. Classical music that blends other styles, like Latin, etc. Folk and blues do that a lot by their nature. Classical music that includes folk music … yeah, I’m really into that. I like folk music because it’s got a direct connection to people and it’s very organic and down to earth. I like it when classical music takes on those qualities.
Wilson: So, where can we catch you next?
King: Oh, playing folk music … somewhere … with someone. I’m kind of the go-to fiddle guy for soundboards but I never know ahead of time.
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