Violinist Lara St. John: "I'm trying to give shiksas a good name"
Classical violinist Lara St. John performs from her new album, Shiksa — an ode to the traditional music of the Balkans and Eastern Europe.
She closes her eyes, enters a trance-like state, and adopts a "linebacker pose". When Canadian violinist Lara St. John performs, she says she's barely aware of her surroundings.
The masterful musician has made a career of crushing traditional classical boundaries, and pushing the limits of her instrument.
Today she and American jazz pianist Matt Herskowitz join Shad in studio q to perform three songs from her new album, Shiksa. The record is a love letter to the traditional music of the Balkans and Eastern Europe. It's also a reclamation of a traditionally disparaging term for a non-Jewish woman.
WEB EXTRA | Watch St. John and Herskowitz perform Czardashian Rhapsody.