Awesome violin solo by Lucia Micarelli

Was watching Chris Botti in Boston last night, and among all of the stars he rolled out to sing some songs (Sting, Steven Tyler, John Mayer, Katharine McPhee) he also had a few guest musicians of the highest caliber, among them Mr. Yo-Yo Ma, who performed an extraordinary piece on cello. But two new talents were revealed to me during my viewing, that of Ms. Sy Smith (cousin of Botti’s guitarist, Mark Whitfield) who ran through a soulful take of Bacharach’s ‘The Look of Love,’ and the other being Lucia Micarelli, the half-Italian, half-Korean violinist who has toured with classic prog-rock veterans, Jethro Tull, and fresh-face operatic wunderkind, Josh Groban (my mother’s favorite). Her performance during the Boston show was intense, passionate, and nuanced. It’s amazing to me to see such a stunning, gifted classical musician in this day and age. You start to think everyone sets out to be some emo rock star, and then WHAM! along comes a musician like Lucia Micarelli or Sy Smith. It’s people like this that add new branches to my own musical interests, which I follow with great pleasure into new avenues previously unexplored.