Black Violin duo bridging the gap between hip-hop, classical in Tucson show

This is something you won’t see every day at a concert billed as “classical”: a DJ working the turntables.

Or a drummer banging out a solo in classic rock ‘n’ roll fashion, set against the backdrop of two classically trained violinists putting their own hip-hop stamp on Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

On Thursday, April 13, the classical music-crossover duo Black Violin will share the Fox Tucson Theater stage with Florida’s DJ SPS and drummer Nat Stokes.

“It’s a rock concert from a violinist’s perspective,” violist Wilner Baptiste — who goes by the stage name Wil B — explained in a phone call last week from Texas. “You’ve never seen a violin in that way, in that light. It’s high-energy, basically hard-hitting beats with beautiful violin on top.”

For more than a dozen years, Baptiste and violinist and lifelong friend Kevin Sylvester — aka Kev Marcus — have been bridging divides by marrying classical music and hip-hop in what turns out to be an eye-opener for everyone: Hip-hop fans get a taste of classical music and classical fans discover that hip-hop can comfortably share a stage with Bach and Brahms.

“We convey a clear message that everyone, no matter what you listen to or what you like, you can understand,” Baptiste said. “We’re bridging gaps between those worlds and we’re bridging the gap between different cultures and people.”

Thursday’s concert is part of Black Violin’s 2017 Unity Tour, which includes stops in dozens of college towns across the country. The duo, which took its name from the title of jazz violin great Stuff Smith’s final album, is touring on its latest album “StereoTypes.” The classically trained pair’s goal is to shatter racial and musical stereotypes at every stop.

“When you come to the concert and without (seeing) the violin, you’re walking by and your assumption of us is not that we play the violin at all,” explained Baptiste, who has been performing with Sylvester for more than a dozen years. “Whatever that is is probably shattered when you come to the concert and see us on stage. We’re breaking stereotypes one stage at a time, and hopefully what that does is allow the people in the audience to go outside the venue and really try to see people for who they are and not necessarily look at them and assume … they can’t do this or do that.”

Sylvester and Baptiste have known each other since grade school when both started taking music lessons in a summer program. Sylvester landed the violin; his mom wanted to keep him out of trouble. Baptiste had his heart set on saxophone but was given the viola, presumably by accident. In 2012, he learned the real story: The band and orchestra teachers, both encouraged by Baptiste’s enthusiasm, hatched a bet over a golf game. The winner — the orchestra teacher — got Baptiste.

The pair’s initial plans with Black Violin were to produce and create pop music using the violin, but once they saw the audience reaction to their music they decided, “Let’s do the artist thing,” Baptiste recalled. “Let’s bring this violin and viola to the forefront.”

That was pre-YouTube and social media. Black Violin built a following one show at a time.

These days, the duo sells out in nearly every city. There are only a couple dozen tickets remaining for Thursday’s concert.

“If you love music and you love all types of music and you want to experience something different, this is definitely the show to check out,” Baptiste said.