Black Violin fights stereotypes with its blend of hip-hop and classical music

In a behind-the-scenes video from May of last year, Black Violin violinist Kev Marcus takes viewers through the contents of his violin case.

There’s his violin, which he refers to as his “baby,” and the electric violin he plays on stage, plus his bows, including one that broke during a performance. “In the line of duty,” Marcus said.

Referring to his case as a whole, Marcus sticks to the military theme, saying “That’s my weapons of mass destruction.”

That might seem a little melodramatic, but it’s accurate given that Marcus and violist Wil Baptiste, who will perform Saturday at the Fox Theater, wield their instruments as weapons in the fight against stereotypes and the status quo.

The duo’s music blends elements of classical music and hip-hop, most recently heard on 2015’s “Stereotypes.”

The blend makes sense to Marcus and Baptiste, who grew up appreciating both genres, but Marcus understands why the idea may seem cacophonous to others.

“Hip-hop is really loud and brash, and classical is really eloquent and elite and refined,” he said. “As far as musical genres go, they are really as polar opposite as you can get.”

Marcus said it usually takes seeing Black Violin live for people to fully understand what the band is about.

These performances, which often attract children, parents and grandparents, give Marcus and Baptiste a stage from which to spread their message: Think outside of the box.

“If you want to be a doctor, a lawyer, you want to be the next LeBron James, approach it from a different way than anyone’s thought about,” Marcus said, repeating what he tells the nearly 200,000 children Black Violin perform for each year. “That’s why we’re doing something different, because we didn’t believe the violin can only sound like this. We always were trying to figure out what else we could do.”

That experimentation began after Marcus and Baptiste met in orchestra class in high school. Both began taking music lessons, somewhat reluctantly, as children, but stuck with the classes because something about the instruments clicked with them.

“As a kid growing up, I wasn’t really great at math, I wasn’t great at English,” Marcus said. “When I found music, I was really good at it and it gave me confidence. That, in turn, turned into confidence in other subjects.

“Not everyone is math, not everyone is science. Some people are art, some people are sports. When you’re a kid, you need to have access to all of these things so you can find what you’re good at and what is interesting to you and what your passion is.”

Having discovered his passion through childhood lessons, and knowing firsthand the power of using music as a tool to break down walls, Marcus becomes frustrated when he hears talk of art programs being cut because they aren’t essential.

“Wil and I learned in public school,” he said. “We didn’t have private schools or an upper crust school to have private lessons. We found who we were supposed to be … because of that situation.”