NO. 1
“OPENING ACT - NOT!”

In 2008, I moved to Charlotte, NC and began working as a full-time musician performing and teaching. I started performing locally with various bands and ensembles. Over time, I secured weekly residencies at several venues including Blue Restaurant, Georges Brasserie, Mickey and Mooch, The House of Jazz, The Pewter Rose and Dean and DeLuca. I quickly became one of the most sought out violinists in the area. My unique style and versatility as an artist made me the top pic for all types of events from corporate parties, weddings, music festivals to private events. I started becoming so popular that I even gained the attention of local celebrities. I thought this was a great thing until it seemed as though I was being sabotaged by these artists and their friends on a whole nother level.

I met soul singer Anthony Hamilton for the first time while setting up for an event at Cosmos in the Ballantyne area. I was walking back from my car and  looked up and saw him standing there. I was so shocked that he was in the shopping center period, but he later told me that he lived in the area. We spoke briefly that day, but I never thought of it much after that. I saw him again months later at a small club in the hood near the uptown area and sat down to talk with him. He seemed really cool. Then we had a few more encounters just being on the music scene. Then in 2017, a couple of weeks before I was supposed to open up for the rapper Scarface in 2017, the owner of TCB 5400 called me to open up his background singers, The Hamiltones. There was no pay, but I did it anyway. I loved their music and I wanted the experience for the next show since it would have been my first time. However, when I got there that day, once again no one was able to greet me, help me set up or anything. But, I figured everything out on my own and tried to make the best of a shitty situation. In retrospect I wish I had not because the owner basically ignored me the entire night which left me confused because he was the one who called. Lesson learned that day, always get paid first. Even though I got through it, I had to basically wing it because I did not have a proper sound check within minutes of my performance time. It actually felt as though I was being “setup” to fail. 

Then once in 2019, r&b singer Fantasia Barrino’s team contacted me to perform at her 5-year Wedding Anniversary Dinner. Now she’d shared me in the past a couple times on social media so I was very excited to meet her.The event was held at the singer’s home in South Charlotte. I performed an impromptu acoustic violin set with her pianist and music director Dennis Reed. Though it was a great experience and honor to meet and perform for Fantasia, I was definitely caught off guard for the performance. I got the call the night before around 10pm while I was sitting in my car trying to figure out where I was going to sleep that night, so the last thing I was expecting was a call from the superstar’s people to come to her home the following day for such an important moment. Once I got there, I had no idea what to expect and there was no one there to explain anything to me. Then I was caught off guard with a photographer I didn’t know who suddenly started recording me as the couple walked in.  The next day I was tagged in a video with horrible sound from a camera phone with no editing, resulting in a crappy audio recording and my face not even visual. That definitely was not how I imagined being introduced to the world on such a large platform. I loved being there but, being so stressed without knowing what was going on and then playing on the wrong type of instrument for the type of event really left me salty. But, that’s the music business. Most times things look like they are organized and well thought out when really things are often thrown together and the artist is the last to know.