Classically trained jazz violinist who started playing at the age of five and was performing with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra at the age of sixteen (Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, no less). He debuted in the Big Apple in 1998 with The D.D. Jackson Group and can be heard on 1999’s Live at Birdland.
Other groups he has been affiliated with include Akua Dixon’s Quartette Indigo, the Christian Howes Group, the European Acoustic Trio, the Hot Swing Group, the Les Paul Trio, the Special Electric Violin Project, and Steve Turre’s Sextet with Strings.
He appears on several albums, including Ten Yard and Shooting Star’s Leap of Faith, and the 2007 concert DVD, Christian Howes & The Horatio Icasto Quartet: Live in Madrid.
Christian plays a Yahama SV-200 Silent Electric Violin and has been the consummate ambassador of the instrument. In 1996, he and his father co-founded Accent Productions, Inc. Their first release was 1997’s Confluence, a live album culled from performances at the London Correction Institution and Spagio in Columbus, Ohio.
In 2009 he was ranked No. 2 in the Rising Stars/Violin category on the Down Beat Critic’s Poll and this rose to No. 1 in 2011 poll.
In the field of musical education he is an associate professor at Berklee College of Music.
Here he is playing a jazz violin solo with Soulgrass…
Sources:
- http://www.christianhowes.com/html/accent.htm
- http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=86601553
- http://www.view.com/howes.html
- http://www.yamaha.com/Artists/ArtistDetail/0,,CNTID%25253D29326%252526CTID%25253D,00.html
- http://www.amazon.com/CHRISTIAN-HOWES-Horacio-Icasto-Quartet/dp/B000R7G5VO
- http://www.christianhowes.com/html/News_2000.htm
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/1098624-Christian-Howes