Mechanical Engineer, Justina Nixon-Saintil and Director of Global Social Responsibility at International Business Machines (IBM) and eminent violinist Kevin Marcus of the group, Black Violin -both Dominica-born, were both honored at the 28th annual, Caribbean American Heritage Virtual Awards Gala earlier this month.
The event is normally held in Washington, DC but due to COVID-19 restrictions, it was held virtually this year, on November 18.
Nixon-Saintil, who received the distinguished ‘Trailblazer Award’, is the vice president of the IBM department which drives strategic social responsible Investments that enables the company’s technology and talent to address some of society’s biggest challenges worldwide.
At the virtual ceremony, the IBM vice president said she was has always been a “curious” person which led her to obtain a degree in mechanical engineering.
“If you had asked the shy eight year old version of me, entering the United States from a small fishing Village in Dominica about my future career, I wouldn’t have had a clue, but I was a curious child and that curiosity led me to want to learn more about how things worked; Eventually leading to a mechanical engineering degree,” she stated.
Nixon-Saintil said throughout her career, whether it was designing containers to keep nuclear waste from seeping into a community water supply or creating initiatives that provided access and Technology to disadvantaged youth to eliminate the digital divide, she always focused on solutions that created the greatest impact.
“For the young people listening, I would like to share two things that I’ve learned along my journey. First, I have never shied away from a challenge. I’m not afraid of failure and many of my successes are because I’ve learned from failure and persevered and endured through difficulty,” she revealed. “Second, it took an ecosystem of friends, mentors, colleague sand family for me to get to where I am today. There’s no way I would have been able to do this alone, and I’m never afraid to ask for guidance and help when I need it.”
She thanked her ecosystem and the Institute of Caribbean studies for performing “such vital work and for reminding us how our background, work ethic and unique culture has helped shaped who we are and how we can make contributions that really make a difference.”
Meantime, Black Violin classically-trained violist and violinist Wilner Baptiste (Hatian national) and Kev Marcus, combine classical training and Hip-Hop influences to create a “distinctive” multi-genre sound that is often described as “classical boom”.
Their album “stereotypes” on Universal Music, debuted at number one on the billboard classical crossover chart and number four on the billboard R&B chart. They committed to educational outreach and performed for more than 100,000 students annually.
Black Violin received the Caribbean American Heritage Excellence and Arts award.
In a post-award interview, Marcus said his whole life, he was judged as he is a black violinist.
“My whole life everybody, even my family [said] why do you have Kevin playing the violin, he’s not supposed to be doing that. I always listened to those types of things and I’m like, I guess we’re not supposed to be Violinist because we’re black, well we’re going to be the blackest violinist you’ve ever seen.”
Marcus noted that they approach this art very classically; not much sliding or jazz but the beats which he stated is “hard-hitting and fun” and is able to blend and go between different genres which according to him brings a really wide large audience of people to their shows.
Marcus said that he grew up in a tough neighborhood and his mom wanted him to get away from some of his friends because as he stated, he was going down the wrong path.
“She put me in this Saturday music program with the hopes that I would get into the Performing Arts Middle School…and that’s exactly what ended up happening, I went to…school and was able to focus on violin.”
Their band name was inspired by a violinist’s named ‘stuff smith’ who recorded an album called “Black Violin” which is his last album before he died.
Black Violin performed at President Obama’s inauguration and their composition of the score for Fox TV series, pitch.
Hoping to see you perform at our next Creole and Jazz in your home town
Congrats Kevin. Your achievement of this award makes us proud and is another manifestation of Dominican musician on the international stage. Although his stage name is Kev Marcus, he is Kevin Sylvester, son of Cottie and Cecil Sylvester from Glanvillia, Portsmouth. Cecil, a former sports officer is deceased.
Keep achieving Kev. You are indeed the greatest Black and Dominican violinist out there, We appreciate You.
Nonsense that man. You never hear of young Braimah Kanneh-Mason then, a black violinist that played at the wedding of Harry and Meghan. You don’t have to be white to play classical music and your violin does not have to be black either. Braimah and his siblings play classical music and Willard White sings opera. Black violin makes the same sound as a white violin, if there is such a thing.