NEW YORK (Top40 Charts/ Shore Fire Media) - Fifteen-year-old Sam Weiser is a most unusual violin prodigy, he started playing at age three, was a concertmaster by 10, and will make his album debut with 'Sam I Am' out on Disappear Records on February 16th. 'Sam I Am' incorporates compositions from
Carlos Santana, Bill Monroe, Eddie Vedder, Antonio
Carlos Jobim, Eddie Palmieri and
George Shearing, among others. Of the album,
Boston Globe's Steve Morse notes Weiser's "gifted, often uncannily fast improvisations, seize the day on wide-ranging tunes."
'Sam I Am' showcases Weiser's prodigious technique, youthful ebullience and mature poise, combining many musical traditions to make a stunning statement about the empowering universality of music.
"It's very important to me to use the power of music to promote tolerance and inspire respect for differences," explains Weiser, who is currently studying at Manhattan School of Music, where he is the first pre-college student to double-major in classical and jazz violin.
After studying under composer and violinist Mark O'Connor, Weiser received the 2008/2009 Daniel Pearl Memorial Violin, honoring the journalist and musician murdered in Pakistan in 2002.
In honor of Pearl, Sam is donating the profits from 'Sam I Am' to the Daniel Pearl Foundation and the Friends of Daniel Pearl's FODFest, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote and strengthen community through the universal language of music.
Hear Sam play with Mark O'Connor's American String Celebration in this Time.com video (and watch his interview at around 4:40):
http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,31031487001_1913359,00.htm
