If yous already thought Damien Escobar was unbelievable, y'all might want to sit downwardly as you learn more about the multi-talented hip-hop violinist. You already know the basics: 13-year old Juilliard graduate, amazingly talented violinist, on an epic improvement from his 2012 career nosedive that left him sleeping on the New York subways. (If you lot're staring at your screen with your jaw on the floor, run into part one of our profile on Damien to acquire more nearly his journey). Simply where has his journey led him?

To a pretty great place.

In Jan, Escobar wrapped up a yearlong tour, he plans to release his new album, Dizzying , in March, and he's slated to kicking off his Eye & Soul tour this May. Not to mention the various entrepreneurial endeavors he'due south involved with — violin design, vino collections, and children's television production — all while traveling from state to state on a tight schedule promoting his music.

Is anyone else tired?

Escobar isn't. The excitement in his voice is contagious equally he talks in-depth about his bout, his television bear witness, his routines on the road. If annihilation, information technology sounds like he'd take on more piece of work — and gladly — so long as it somehow brought the joy of music to new ears.

"Everybody's not going to understand it, they'll like what they like, but everything evolves, you know? So information technology's an development of what classical music was." Escobar says of his music, recalling a moment when his violin teacher told him that he wasn't playing in a way that Bach would approve of. "I looked at her like she was admittedly crazy. I'm like, 'Hold on for one second – Bach was alive in the 1600s and he was an innovator.'"

He Did Fusion… Before It Was A Matter

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Escobar's music — a hypnotic alloy of classical violin finesse over modernistic hip-hop beats — is exactly that: an evolution of music. Information technology seems like this kind of fusion is something like a motility as of late. Call up Glee and Step Upwardly , Hamilton and La La Land . Just Escobar came earlier all of it.

Learn more about what Damien was up to between 2012 — when Nuttin' But Strings broke upwardly — and at present in part one of our two-part serial on the violinist.

He started mixing classical and hip-hop in 2004 when he and his brother's Nuttin' But Stringz took their human activity from the subway to the stage — a move that had been a long fourth dimension coming.

"I grew up in a household with a unmarried mom who couldn't afford to give us the things that we wanted. Only she taught the states how to get out and get it for ourselves. And so my brother and I, we were on the subways making money since I was 10," Escobar says. "It turned into an amazing 10-year career together — that had its highs and lows — merely we won Emmy Awards, sold millions of records, and we became those guys that crossed over classical violin to mainstream, nosotros were the innovators of that."

But if you lot thought that Escobar would be content with the already jam-packed life of a traveling musician, you plain haven't been paying attending.

"Violin is the main thing that I do, as an creative person. Music is something I dearest, but there are other branches of music that I've embarked on this yr," Escobar says, explaining his ventures into children'due south idiot box, violin design, and a line of wines due to debut at the finish of this twelvemonth. "The problem when you deal with things that take an quondam tradition – similar wine has an old tradition, the violin has an quondam tradition – they don't typically similar artists that are rebels, and that'due south kind of what I am, and then they [a potential collaborator] passed on the opportunity. Then I said, 'You know what? That's okay.' And I started my ain line of vino."

On Bout: A New City Every Day

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This sort of determination and hard work is evident is equally of Escobar's life — on and off the phase. He simply spent the past year on the route, hopping from metropolis to metropolis to promote his anthology Sensual Melodies . Virtually times, he spends less than 24 hours in each place.

"We make it in the morning, I practice a lot of press for the testify and I'll visit a schoolhouse, talk to some kids, and so I'll do sound check, perform the show, run into and greet, and then I'm back on the tour bus, on to the next city." He rattles information technology off similar the routine that information technology now is — this life of a musician on a nationwide bout.

Sometimes, he notes, they do become to spend a couple of days somewhere along the tour road, usually in a town that'southward not on almost people'southward bucket lists.

"Bloomington, Illinois… Information technology'southward the most random city in America, but information technology's so awesome! It's then cool!" Escobar laughs as he recalls his time in the town. "Oh my goodness, nosotros ate like five deep dish pizzas and were extremely stuffed and and then nosotros did a photoshoot in the middle of the street and there were cows walking behind us — information technology was the greatest moment — and we randomly went and did hot yoga… We had a really good time because there was 'nothing to do' at that place and information technology kind of forced u.s. — my unabridged team — it forced u.s. all to be social, to hang out, and only actually enjoy the moment outside of performing. Information technology was a really cool moment."

Escobar makes a bespeak of making sure his team gets to savor the tour holistically — they do hot yoga whenever they can find it and travel with a massage therapist to ensure that everyone is at the top of their game, not just professionally, but mentally and physically too.

"We'll wake upwards, we'll do hot yoga," Escobar says. "Mental wellness is extremely important to me. I want to brand certain everybody is in the right mental state, I desire to make sure everybody is happy, I want to make certain everybody feels heard. That way, nosotros'll take a successful tour and a successful team and everybody is enjoying what they're doing."

And the proficient vibes are showing: Damien has a community of fans across the world who are clamoring for him to add their city to his Heart and Soul tour that kicks off in May. He'south got a few famous admirers as well.

"Since he's not in office anymore, I tin finally share this story," Escobar says. "A friend of mine, she worked in Barack's executive Cabinet and there was one year that they went to the vineyard. A blocked number calls me and I hear my music blaring in the background and she's on the phone and she's like, 'Tin can you hear this?' And I'k like, 'Yeah, that'southward my music — what'due south going on?' And so I hear a vocalization come on the phone and just says, 'I love this shit.' And I'm like… Barack?!"

He adds, "I never know where my music reaches and who it reaches."

There yous have it, folks. Damien Escobar: an entrepreneurial hip-hop violinist and America'southward crooner-in-chief.