{"id":31845,"date":"2020-12-07T12:56:25","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T19:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/?p=31845"},"modified":"2020-12-07T12:56:25","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T19:56:25","slug":"have-yourself-a-merry-little-christmas-black-violin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/have-yourself-a-merry-little-christmas-black-violin\/","title":{"rendered":"Best New Christmas Music: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Black Violin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have Yourself a Merry Little <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> is getting a lot of <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/sneaking-christmas\/\">love<\/a> this year. And why not? It&#8217;s a classic who&#8217;s time has come again and this beautiful rendition by Black Violin is a must listen:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/32r_aoIFndw\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/merrypodcast.com\/podcast\/new-christmas-music\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/mmc-220a5.kxcdn.com\/x\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/newmusic.jpg\" alt=\"New Christmas Music 2020 - Merry Little Podcast\" width=\"1200\" height=\"150\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-31830\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mmc-220a5.kxcdn.com\/x\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/newmusic.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/mmc-220a5.kxcdn.com\/x\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/newmusic-300x38.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mmc-220a5.kxcdn.com\/x\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/newmusic-1030x129.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/mmc-220a5.kxcdn.com\/x\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/newmusic-768x96.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The song comes from their new <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> album <em>Give Thanks<\/em>. Produced by Phil Beaudreau, the album was released on November 20, 2020.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGive Thanks employs playful storytelling, whimsical strings, and hard-hitting rhythms to highlight the unifying pillars of the holiday season: Giving back to others and being wholeheartedly thankful,\u201d Black Violin says of the full-length.<\/p>\n<p>For 17 years, Black Violin has been merging string arrangements with modern beats and vocals. Members Kev Marcus and Wil Baptiste first met in orchestra class at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale, becoming classically trained on the violin and viola through their high school and college careers. Post-college, they reconvened to produce beats for South Florida rappers, and began building an audience in local clubs. They later went on to win Showtime at the Apollo in 2005, and eventually sold out headline performances at venues across the country, including a sold out two-night headline run at The Kennedy Center in 2018. Their unique brand of merging the genre they were listening to (hip hop) with the world they were studying (classical) was celebrated with collaborations with Alicia Keys, Wu Tang Clan, 2 Chainz and others.<\/p>\n<p>Pre-pandemic, Black Violin was playing over 200 shows a year with the goal of challenging stereotypes and preconceived notions of what a \u201cclassical musician\u201d looks and sounds like.  \u201cThe stereotypes are always there, embedded so deep in our culture,\u201d says Wil. \u201cJust by nature of our existence we challenge those ideas. It\u2019s a unique thing that brings people together who aren\u2019t usually in the same room, and in the current climate, it\u2019s good to bring people together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last year, the group launched the Black Violin Foundation Inc., a non profit organization dedicated to empowering youth by providing access to quality music programs in their community. BVF believes that music and access to music programs should not be determined by race, gender, or socio-economic status. Black Violin Foundation\u2019s inaugural program the Musical Innovation Grant for Continuing Education will provide scholarships to young music students to attend a program of their liking that fosters musical creativity and innovation. Programs can range from private lessons, to summer music camps, to college courses. Scholarships will be awarded bi-annually to up to 20 applicants per scholarship cycle. More info at: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blackviolinfoundation.org\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.blackviolinfoundation.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas is getting a lot of love this year. And why not? It&#8217;s a classic who&#8217;s time has come again and this beautiful rendition by Black Violin is a must listen: The song comes from their new Christmas album Give Thanks. Produced by Phil Beaudreau, the album was released on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":31846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","iawp_total_views":5,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[855],"class_list":["post-31845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas-music","category-christmas-news","tag-black-violin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}