Black Violin hits the Moore Theatre stage on Wed, April 5. COLIN BRENNAN
A summertime golf game between two high-school band teachers decided the musical fate of Wilner “Wil B” Baptiste. Though the teenaged Bahamian immigrant had his heart set on learning the saxophone, his future string instructor beat the brass master at 18 holes. With a pivotal winning shot, Baptiste’s dreams of thumbing sultry numbers in jazz clubs for tips vanished, and instead he began learning bowing techniques on his brand-new viola.
Baptiste was invited to enroll in a performing arts high school the following year, where he excelled in viola and met Kevin “Kev Marcus” Sylvester, a fellow Black string player who’d become a lifelong friend and the other half of their classically influenced hip-hop group Black Violin.