Flash back two years. I am waiting in line at the Atrium when I notice a violin case staring me in the face. I twisted around the case to find a guy in a loose button down shirt, talking casually with a distinct and clear voice. What were the odds of me randomly seeing a string musician in a college campus in Muncie? I eagerly begin talking to him and find out the basics. His name is Justin Wilk and he is a violin performance major with a minor in film.
Flash forward to the present day. Wilk and I are walking into his apartment, where a yellow young duck is sitting in a box. We sit down on the sofa and the questions I haven't asked for all the times that I've spent with him are finally slipping out.
The inspiration, the motivation, the awe, the curiosity, the passion, the excitement of the violin all started when Wilk was in kindergarten.
"When I was in kindergarten these two sixth graders came in and played Beauty and the Beast, like the theme music to it. And I was like what the hell is that instrument? That's incredible. It blew me away," Wilk said. "I was like, I want to do that for the rest of my life."
At nine years old, he would start playing the violin. He was given private lessons and enrolled in the Suzuki School of Music. When describing his first violin teacher, he begins laughing and describes how she was the worst violin teacher he had ever had in his life.
"She was this little old frail woman. She'd sit at the piano and you'd start playing, and then she'd say,'no higher' Then she'd pound on the keys on the piano and say, 'no, no this is the pitch,'" Wilk shrieks in a voice intimidating an old yente. "And my mom had to bribe me to go to my lessons because I was so afraid."
I ask him what music does for him. To me it seemed like a logical question, but Wilk gives a slick joke about masturbating, which may seem inappropriate, however, I view Wilk as this carefree, creative, random, artistic, odd, secret musical genius who's on a different wavelength then the rest of the world. So the joke passes through as I press further.
Wilk raises his voice.
"I don't know what a good answer to that is. What does music do for me? I don't know how to do anything else. This is all I know how to do," he said. "I don't know how to do any practical job in my life except for entertainment."
Then realizing there isn't this huge philosophical analysis of what goes through a musician's head while their performing or practicing, the interview continues. He plays to release emotion, to create music, and because it is second nature. When playing the violin he becomes "delusional."
"When I play the violin I hear the entire symphony playing with me," Wilks said. "When I play my imagination kinda wanders. You could be playing a stupid Mozart concerto and it could be such a boring piece of music on the violin, but then when you are hearing an accompaniment, when you're hearing the orchestra playing with you, it's like in your head, that makes it exciting, that adds that depth and texture to it."
Wilk's main career focus is composing music. In his spare time, along with directing, writing and producing music for films, he also composes the music used during the film.
He opens his laptop and brings up a document of music he has composed with different lines stacked on top of another with different instrumental parts. Music notes are splattered across the page; little black dots that read a different language that half the world sees as simply circles and lines drawn in black ink. However, these ink dots have created pure emotional beauty in a form that cannot be put into words.
It is a shame that classical music may seem like a dying art to our culture. The beauty of a classical piece of music, as Wilk also describes, is it takes you through such an emotional roller coaster. You can start out just being relaxed, and then remember the bitterness and sour in your life, yet a few seconds later be filled with pure joy.
Wilk further said you can always find something new when listening to classical music.
And I certainly believe that can also be said about Justin Wilk.
Write to Meira at mabienstock@bsu.edu
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