- My name is Nathaniel K. Lynn I got my start in music at three years old with the violin.

I started off doing the Suzuki method and then I moved on to MYSO.

(pensive violin music) I started with Prelude.

It was the first orchestra I began in.

Prelude was followed by Symphonia.

Symphonia was followed by a string orchestra.

And then I eventually moved up to senior symphony once I was a senior in high school.

So from 5th grade all the way up to 12th grade, I was in the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra.

And I'm currently doing freelance violin, where I do weddings, I do birthday parties.

The Milwaukee music scene stands out to me, particularly with orchestra, because of the MSO.

You'll find that a lot of instructors in Milwaukee that teach at a high level were either in MSO or they were formerly in MSO.

So, you know, it kind of makes you think, how high can I go when it comes to this violin stuff?

There's always gonna be an orchestral scene here in Milwaukee.

I definitely got my musical style just from the Suzuki method, the books that I grew up playing with.

And then my parents also grew up on Funkadelic music, kind of 1970s "Soul Train" sound.

And that also kind of sparked my love for just, you know, spontaneous melodies.

(pensive violin music continues) Listening to music from a young age, all types of sounds from indie, rap, rock, reggae, all types of influences.

When it comes to playing my violin, I like to create an emotion.

I like to pick a singular emotion and just kind of go off of that.

If I'm writing a song, that emotion could be, you know, envy or frustration, or on the happy side, it could be glee or exciting.

And from there, that's how I'll kind of build the song, build the melody.

When I'm playing, I'm definitely focused as a result of kind of how I was taught.

You learn a song for a month and then at the end of the month, you have a recital.

Growing up, recitals were always scary 'cause of all the people, all the preparation, just high stakes.

So I'm kind of, it's built into me to just focus.

Whenever I get up there in front of people, all I see is the musical notes.

I want that audience to feel kind of a collection of emotions.

Each line of the song, I kind of want to be different, so therefore, the audience is gonna feel different as the song is going on.

I want the audience to be overall enthralled by the playing, on their toes.

I want them to be taking in the love for the violin.

(pensive violin music concludes)