Katie Pawluk

Tuesday June 12th 2007. A date that will live in infamy as the day the Horseshoe in Toronto was rocked by Katie Pawluk and her band of violin toting rock gangstas. Playing some standards off her album 'Let It Go' as well as some new stuff she had the audience cheering from the word go. Katie blends her classical training and melodious singing with a bit of rock, violin style, and the best of 80's hip-hop, at least in terms of her cadence when rhyming. On some softer numbers like 'King of Destruction' it is the pure sweet tones of her singing voice that are front and centre. My favorite song of the evening was the encore, 'The Only One'. Quiet and beautiful I hope that you will be blessed enough to hear it someday. If she visits Toronto from her home in New York ever again, please go see her. - www.zedbeats.com

Katie Pawluk, who has played Carnegie Hall more than 100 times, has just released her first CD, a hard-to-categorize mix of classical, rap and hip-hop entitled Let it Go. Pawluk grew up in Richmond but makes her home in New York City.

"You can play Bach like that"

By Michelle Hopkins

Katie Pawluk was bringing highbrow musicianship to the hot, dirty, noisy bowels of the New York City subway system when she was discovered.

"I was broke and played in the subways to pay the rent," recalls the Richmond-raised Pawluk. "One day, this guy comes up to me and asked what I was doing there.

"You know, you meet a lot of crackheads so when he gave me his business card and asked if I wanted to play in Europe, I thought he was a flake."

She admits she was a little intrigued, however, and phoned Aaron Brown, who within days sent Pawluk plane tickets to Luxembourg, Belgium and France.

"It was an amazing experience. Aaron put together a band and I played with Juilliard graduates and for a month we toured Europe."

That put her on the road to the famed Carnegie Hall stage. As karma would have it, one of the musicians on tour just happened to be a Carnegie Hall employee.

"She contracted out musicians and she gave me a chance to perform," says Pawluk.

Classically trained, this virtuoso violinist has performed at the world-renowned music hall more than 100 times. Plus, she released her first CD in July.

"I have played with orchestra concerts and smaller groups, I haven't had a solo yet. I'd like to," admits the 29-year-old Pawluk. "The hall is so amazing, the greatest in the world.

"The first time I stepped onto the stage I was freaking out, filled with butterflies in my stomach ... wow, it was incredible."

Carnegie Hall gave Pawluk the confidence to put together a band and "seriously start writing songs."

That was 2003.

"I kinda always had a fantasy to be in a band," admits Pawluk, who was in Richmond visiting family with her husband, jazz composer Charles Waters, and their one-year-old son, Felix. Pawluk is the daughter of Fred and Margaret Pawluk and stepdaughter of Coun. Sue Halsey-Brandt.

Pawluk's trio plays gigs in bars and clubs in and around the Big Apple, including the famed Zebulon in Brooklyn and the avant garde Tonic Bar & Lounge.

"Most people in the audience are surprised when they first hear the violin with rap but then they like it," says Pawluk.

Her newly released CD, entitled Let it Go, is a compilation of seven original tracks by the hip-hop rapper violinist. She integrates everything from classical to rock 'n' roll to blues, with a large dose of rap. Pawluk doesn't see herself as a trailblazer, despite the uniqueness of her debut CD. "I like to think that I sound like myself," says Pawluk. "It's an amalgamation of all that I hear and hopefully making it into something new."

Some of her songs are filled with angst, such as the hugely catchy KG! - which stands for Katherine Grace, her initials. The song was inspired by the battle of wills Pawluk had with one of her first violin teachers, who kept telling her she was doing it all wrong.

"I was too creative for her liking," remembers Pawluk. "I was raised as a classical musician but it didn't mean I couldn't be creative."

The track 2004 is a politically charged anti-Bush song about how the government tries to control the media.

"I was in a real transition period when I wrote most of the songs, New York is a tough, dirty, hard city," explains Pawluk. "New York is filled with a million stressed-out type-A personalities who work 24/7.

"Canadians are so paranoid that we are becoming too American but we are so different ... Canadians are more trusting, more open and caring."

The daughter of parents who introduced their eldest to all genres of music, Pawluk caught the violin bug at the age of three.

"My parents had a huge record collections and I use to love listening to the violin," says Pawluk. "I just love the sound of the violin."

She recalls scribbling compositions when she was no more than five.

Pawluk trained at the Vancouver Academy of Music, then she went on to achieve her music degree from the University of Toronto.

"I was a good student but considered by some of my music teachers to be a rebel ... I upset a lot of people," says Pawluk. "Then I did another year of classical music at UBC."

Purchase Let it Go at www.cdbaby.com/

cd/pawluk or www.towerrecords.com. The cover art was done by Pawluk's younger sister, Emma.

"The official release in New York will be this fall and hopefully it will be in record stores in the Lower Mainland this November or December," says Pawluk, as she races off for breakfast with another former music teacher.

published on 09/05/2006 - The Richmond News

Tuesday June 12th 2007. A date that will live in infamy as the day the Horseshoe in Toronto was rocked by Katie Pawluk and her band of violin toting rock gangstas. Playing some standards off her album 'Let It Go' as well as some new stuff she had the audience cheering from the word go. Katie blends her classical training and melodious singing with a bit of rock, violin style, and the best of 80's hip-hop, at least in terms of her cadence when rhyming. On some softer numbers like 'King of Destruction' it is the pure sweet tones of her singing voice that are front and centre. My favorite song of the evening was the encore, 'The Only One'. Quiet and beautiful I hope that you will be blessed enough to hear it someday. If she visits Toronto from her home in New York ever again, please go see her. - www.zedbeats.com