In Monday’s (2/22) Seattle Times, Tom Keogh profiles Seattle-based violinist Quinton Morris, whose activities include a “globe-trotting, immersive project ‘Breakthrough,’ about the 18th-century composer-violinist (and onetime roommate of Mozart) Joseph Bologne, also known as the Chevalier de Saint-Georges…. A documentary film of [the ‘Breakthrough’] tour is being shot, while a separate ‘Breakthrough’ film—part of the concert experience—is making its way into the U.S. film-festival circuit…. In a short movie, also called ‘Breakthrough,’ … Morris himself plays Saint-Georges, the Guadeloupe-born son of a wealthy, white planter and an African slave…. ‘He wasn’t just the first black composer to write symphonic music and operas and sonatas in France in the 18th century,’ Morris says. ‘He’s much more.’ ” Morris, an alumnus of the Seattle Youth Symphony, studied pre-law but “switched to music, earning his doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin. In 2007, Morris was asked to take the reins of Seattle University’s nascent music school. He designed the bachelor of music degree and curriculum, and recruited music faculty and students. ‘My mom told me to stick to the violin because it would take me far,’ he says. ‘She was right.’ ”
Posted February 26, 2016
