We have more than 30 string players so far, and growing. I needed to create more secure work for string players where we star in the show and we can create our own job opportunities. Also the string players are always the last thing they add and the first thing they cut when the budget is cut for a show. My livelihood was dependent on someone else all the time, and I didn’t like that.
But what I noticed is that your entire job is at the discretion of someone else and how the artist feels that week or if they decided to have a baby and start a family or whether or not they used too many drugs and can’t make all the shows happen. So what made you create Bella Electric Strings and “Femmes of Rock”?Ī It was my career path for a long time performing in other people’s bands. Q I know you’ve been a guest artist for others and that could have been your career path. That’s what the show is, showing that the violin can really be a standout rock instrument. It’s kind of become my thing – figuring out these really good tones on electric violin. My dad had a little Marshall amplifier and I took my cheap electric violin and plugged into his amp and messed with the settings and taught myself “The Star-Spangled Banner” à la Jimi Hendrix style, and when my parents got home from work I said, “Listen what I can do.” And it was like, “Oh boy, so it begins.” I’ve been through about 100 different effects pedals and boards and creating my tones.
That was the moment I decided I had to try to do this on violin. Q Where did this idea of electrifying the violin come from for you?Ī When I was young, Woodstock ’94 was happening, so they started showing all these videos of Woodstock ’69, and I saw Jimi Hendrix playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the sounds he was getting out of his guitar and it blew my mind. So he suggested the violin because they had some openings and it would be lighter. The band director called me into his office and because I was so small he didn’t think I was going to be able to carry it on the bus everyday. I really wanted to play the saxophone because I was interested in jazz and old rock and roll. When we got to the fourth grade in school, we got to choose an instrument to play in band or orchestra. Q So how did you get interested in the violin growing up?Ī I started playing piano at 6 years old because I was asking for lessons and we had a piano in the house. Photo provided / Patrick Rivera Photography “Femmes of Rock,” led by Nina DiGregorio, performs Friday night at Four Winds Casino. And now here we are about a year later and we’ve got a ton of production and video that syncs with our choreography and it’s a real hard-hitting rock show and polished production now. The first couple of shows were pretty bare-bones, but the talent of the girls and the arrangements were enough to carry the show. Someone saw us at one of these events and said, “Hey, I own a theater, would you be able to do a 90-minute stage show we could sell tickets for?” Of course I said, “Yes,” hung up the phone and realized I had to go write a show. I had been writing these string quartet arrangements of popular songs probably since I was 12 or 13 years old. Q So how did this whole idea start for you with this quartet?Ī We started out as an electric quartet a few years back and we did mostly corporate events with backing tracks. Led by rock violinist, arranger and founder DiGregorio, the show also features electric violinists Christina Riegert, Carissa Werner and Chandra Meibalane backed by a band of Michael Licata (drums), John Wedemeyer (guitar) and Michael Kelly (bass), who performs Friday at Four Winds Casino Resort’s Silver Creek Event Center.ĭiGregorio, who has performed with everyone from Shakira to Toni Braxton to Wayne Newton, spoke recently about creating a show with the electric violin in the spotlight. That’s because “Femmes of Rock” features a violin string quartet on electric instruments shredding to tunes like Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train.”
“It’s all of your favorite classic rock tunes heard in a way you’ve never heard before.” “The show won’t be what anyone thinks it is,” she says. NEW BUFFALO - Nina DiGregorio is quick to tell anyone planning to attend her show, “Femmes of Rock” starring Bella Electric Strings, to leave any preconceived expectations at the door.
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