“Lydia Umlauf is a 25-year-old professional orchestral violinist with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra,” writes Hady Mawajdeh in last Thursday’s (4/27) ArtandSeek.org (Dallas), which is publishing a series of profiles on North Texas artists. “Q: How does being in North Texas affect the production of your art? A: I call Dallas a frontier for classical music. We have a great orchestra. We have a great opera orchestra.… This whole ‘Mozart in the Bar’ [a series that Umlauf started at Black Swan Saloon in Deep Ellum] has been so successful. People are literally like, ‘Whoa! Classical music in Deep Ellum! What is this?’ I love it. Q: What makes you different and sets you apart from others doing what you do? A: I do things like make friends with a bar owner so that I can get a concert series like this one going.… I like being in the action. Q: Can you share something with me that would surprise people about what it’s like to be a professional concert violinist? A: I guess it’s that we’re all extremely normal people.… There’s a woman in the orchestra who is really into baking pies and another guy who’s obsessed with cycling.”
Posted May 4, 2017
