A young San Antonio musician headed to New York a couple of years ago to find his calling, and on Wednesday morning he found something completely unexpected. What musician Darian Thomas found was that he and his music had been featured in a New York Times article titled "5 Minutes That Will Make You Love The Violin."
"I think when I first got the email, I kind of laughed because I was like, this must be a joke. But then it was real," Thomas said.
More on his honor, but first — who's Darian Thomas? He was a very busy San Antonio violinist and musician.
"I was in a bunch of bands and a couple orchestras. I was playing with Femina X. I was playing with the Foreign Arm with Deer Vibes," he said.
He played with Youth Orchestras of San Antonio, had an art-pop duo. His list goes on and on, but he eventually decided he had to relocate.
"I realized that the work that I wanted to do was going to center on merging the aesthetics with my mother tongue, which is pop music, with the music that I had come to study and love and grow into the culture of, which was classical music," he said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEqgalnL-po
His pop musician and classical musician selves wanted to live and work together, and create that music for those who don't feel the need to distinguish the two. He decided New York City was the place for that. And when he got there, he dove right in.
"I joined six bands because I love doing too much work. But recently it's been pared back to like three," Thomas said.
Not long ago he was contacted by a musician about a haunting song Thomas put onto the site Bandcamp.
"Marc Balter reached out and was like, this song in particular is really beautiful. And then started asking me way too many questions," he laughed.
Turns out Marcos Balter was contributing to an article called "5 Minutes That Will Make You Love The Violin." The compilation article featured Thomas and his composition. He takes the accomplishment in stride.
"I'm — I guess — just grateful for the opportunity to be able to reach more people with what I'm doing," he said.
Thomas has no immediate change in plans. He expects to continue doing what he’s been doing: write and perform. One gets the sense that it's not the last time you'll see his name in the Times.
Jack Morgan can be reached at Jack@TPR.org and on Twitter at @JackMorganii.
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