The Violin Conspiracy | Holly Furtick Book Club

Foreign. Hello, welcome to book club. I'm Holly Furtick. This is my book club. And I'm really excited that you are here with me tonight. And tonight you might be wondering, what book are we discussing? Well, if you're a part of our book club, you know, we are discussing this book, the Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocum. And if you're joining me, let me know where you're joining me from. And if you liked this book, the Violent Conspiracy by Brendan Slocum, Brendon is going to be joining us in just a minute. I'm just going to start off. At what point did you suspect the girlfriend? Here's my take on this. At first, I suspected that it was the girlfriend. When I first suspected her was when the maid thing didn't work out. Like, the maid was in South America and all that, because I was like, how could the violin have gotten stolen if this girl was not the person who stole it or had a hand in it or whatever? But then I thought I bought into their relationship. And I honestly, like, I felt so sorry for Ray. That's our main character. I felt so sorry for him because he was so lonely. And in his life, I think he felt like everything, everyone in his life, almost everyone in his life wanted something from him. Like, all of his family members had kind of turned on him and wanted him to sell the violin. And. And, you know, a lot of the people that he played with didn't believe in him or were jealous of him or didn't think he was worthy of being in that position. And so I felt so sorry for him that I bought into the love story because I was like, oh, I just randomly met this girl and I'm so glad he has her. And Emily said, oh, that's sweet. Emily says, I wanted to have him over for dinner. Yeah, I felt really sorry for him. I felt really lonely for him. So I convinced myself it wasn't her. I didn't want to believe it was her. So I sort of let go. And I was just like, I'm not gonna try and figure this out now. This is a good question, too. When you read a book like this, are you trying to figure it out? Because I sometimes am. Like, I don't want to try and figure it out. I'm just gonna let the book happen. I'm gonna let the story tell me who did it. Some people are like, they have to know who. Like my sister. You have to know who it is. So I don't know. I just wanted to believe it wasn't her. And I just wanted to let the story happen. And it happened to me. And then I was surprised kind of at the end when she did the slip up. Now, here's one more thing I want to discuss. One more thing I want to discuss before we bring Brendan on. And I want to make sure I have enough time to talk to him. So this is the last thing we're going to talk about. But my favorite thing about this book, and probably besides the fact that I read it really fast, I was really into the story and I love the idea of like classical music. And I didn't know that much about classical music and violins, even though my mom was a music teacher when I was a kid. The thing that hooked me about this book and I was talking to my mom on the phone about this earlier today, was that when you think about the main characters, the main character was Ray, obviously, but. But to me, the second most important character in the book was not a person, it was the violin. And I'm always impressed when an author pulls off the ability to make a non human object, whether it's an animal or an instrument or. I'm trying to think of another example. A house. Like, if anybody read the Dutch House, the house is a character. If you read. If you read the Lonesome Dove, the horse, the hell bitch. Excuse my language, but that was the horse's name. The horse is a character in the book. And in this book, the violin is its own character. And straight from the get go. Oh, like the Great alone. Yeah, Emily says the Great alone. Oh, you guys, this is such an interesting conversation. Christy says the backpack in Wild. In the Great alone, it's Alaska. It's like the setting itself is almost like a living, breathing character. And same with. What did Christy say again? Because I thought that. Oh, the backpack in Wild and she. It even had a name. I don't remember what it was, but like this idea of the violin being a character. From the very beginning, we're introduced to this violin and, and with its value, like how incredibly valuable this instrument is. And at first I was like, okay, so here's my question. I'm gonna say what I wanna say and you guys start commenting. Did you think at any point, like, why doesn't he just sell the violin? Like, how can you. It's $10 million. Why don't you just sell the violin? And I think what I loved about the story was he made me love the violin and he made me not want him to sell the violin. And. And so the other thing. Oh, I told you this, I read this in like, I did a tiny bit of research, but I read that there is a 300 year old Stradivarius violin that was played in the, in the score of the wizard of Oz. And it's gonna go up for option soon. And they're, they're guessing that it's gonna sell for $20 million violin, which I just, I didn't even know that that world existed. I mean, I believe it, but I just. That's what I love is when a book opens up your point of view to a whole new world of the value of an instrument. And how like Ray, he loved this instrument and he was so sentimental and it was more valuable to him than $10 million. It was more valuable to him than his relationships with his family because he valued it that much. And then. And I loved the scene. This is probably my favorite scene. It's kind of a strange part, but when he goes to the violin shop to. Because the violin, his violin's gone and he's got to play in this competition. So he goes to the violin shop to pick a violin. And as a person who doesn't play an instrument, I'm like, dude, how, how, how different could it be? But he, like, he was so sad and he didn't want any of those instruments and they all felt different. And then you felt so bad for me. He's got to go play in this like opportunity competition of a lifetime and he doesn't have like his, his other arm. Anyway, I love that. I've got a lot of questions for Brendan. I'm sure you have a lot of questions for him too. And just before we bring him on, I want to tell you that Brendan was raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina, our home state. My home state. Maybe not all of you who are on here with us tonight, but he's a North Carolinian. And I don't know if you know this, like you probably read his little bio and the afterward, but he was. He has a music degree in education with concentrations in the violin and the viola, which is why the book is so, you know, so vivid when it comes to music and instruments. And he has degrees from the University of North Carolina Greensboro, and he's been a public and a private school teacher educator. He's performed in many orchestras throughout Northern Virginia, Maryland and Washington D.C. and he's currently working in second novel. So are you guys ready to talk to Brendan? Let's go. Hi.

Hey.

So nice to meet you. Thank you for being on here with us tonight.

It is my Pleasure. Thank you so much for the invitation.

We really enjoyed your book. Thank you. The Violin Conspiracy. And I. You know, I think you heard me say this, but I was. I was hooked when it took place in Charlotte, and so. But then I was disappointed when I found out you weren't from Charlotte. So tell me why you picked Charlotte as his hometown.

I chose Charlotte because I figured it would be an area that people who weren't from North Carolina necessarily, they would be familiar with the name of Charlotte. Whereas Fayetteville, where I'm from, they're like, where. Where. What is that Is. I don't know. I know. Fayetteville. What is it? Arkansas, I think. I think. Or Tennessee or something. I don't know. But I just figured Charlotte had a bit more national appeal than Fayetteville.

Got it. Okay, so before I start asking you questions, I asked you to pick an excerpt to read. We love to hear our authors in their own voice read a part of their book. So can you start us off by reading from your book?

Absolutely. All right. Now, I don't have my glasses on, so forgive me if I. I should know this. I wrote this a couple years ago. The last movement of the concerto was the most energetic. Ray liked to play it at a moderate tempo, and they'd rehearsed it at a moderate tempo. But now the conductor took it faster than Ray had ever done. There was nothing more he could do. He was blind. His mother was pissing off the audience, and he was playing the wrong piece of music at the wrong tempo. Awesome. Did Hillary Hahn ever have to deal with this? Bring it to. Just freaking bring it. Stand tall. Grandma Nora had told him he would stand tall with the spotlight shining on his face, and his music would pour into all their ears, and they would understand that no matter what anyone threw at him, he was not going away. He was not stooping to their level. The air conditioning could go off, and he could melt. They could toss any piece of crappy music they wanted at him, and he would play. He would not be ignored or denied or embarrassed ever again. He would. He was a musician, and music had no color. When his last note rang out, the audience sprang to its feet, applauding.

It's so colorful and such. Such a really fun story to read. I love how you start off in the. You know, in the present, and then you gradually kind of give us his backstory and the backstory of violin and how he came to. To get it and all of that. I would love for you to tell everyone what. I mean, you're A music teacher, and you're a performer. So when did you know you were also an author? And what compelled you to just begin to write the story down?

Well, I had actually written a terrible, terrible science fiction story a number of years back that I hope no one ever sees the light of day. I hope it never gets out to anyone. And because of COVID you know, being a teacher and a musician, my entire revenue stream stopped in 2020, and I had plenty of time to try my hand at writing again. And like I said, I had the time. And with the events that had taken place with George Floyd, I figured that the time was ripe for people to receive stories like this.

So was it difficult? I mean, as a person? So you've written this one story before. Was. Did the story come easily to you?

The violent conspiracy actually did, because it was very, very personal to me. And these are stories that I've been carrying around for, you know, decades, basically since I was 9 years old. And it was quite cathartic to get them out onto the page and basically have my story validated. So it came pretty easily. And I was. It was fun to do.

So. I've heard you say that the. That the. This book, although fiction, is quite autobiographical. And I'm going to come back to that in a second. But I'm curious. Did you ever think what made you write it into a fiction story instead of a memoir?

Just because. That's a great question. I'm planning on writing a memoir at some point, and this is just one point in it. I figured this would be much more entertaining than what's going on in my life, you know, and it was. It was a story that I thought that it was interesting. And I remember one of my colleagues, when I was in college, I said to him, you know what? I'm going to write a story about my life up to this point. And he actually, when the book came out, he said, brendan, you told me you were going to do this, like, 30 years ago, and I can't believe you actually did it. And, yeah, it was really interesting. I remember a lot of the stuff that happened with you, and you definitely did it the right way. I was like, all right, well, thanks. And I like to write like I'm watching a movie. I want to be entertained.

Yeah. And I think. I would imagine that it's kind of fun to take stories that happen to you, but then because it's fiction, you can make them end differently, and you can make different people come along in the story. And anyway, very fascinating. So can you Tell us, like, what are some of the moments in the book that would be difficult to believe, but you would say, no, that actually happened to me.

I can give you more than one. The wedding scene. It was slightly modified, but it definitely happened. The Baton Rouge scene. The only difference between Baton Rouge with Ray and me is that Ray went to jail. I didn't go to jail. Everything else was exactly the same. And there was a point where Ray did a horrible performance and was ready to quit. That was definitely me. Pavlovsky violin concerto is my bane. I just. It was awful, and I wanted to quit. And then I came back and played Chartis at my next performance. And, yeah, my teacher really. She really helped me through that, and she's the reason that I'm still here doing this.

That's so awesome. What about the scene where you. The. Ray was at, like. I think it was like a camp. It was like a violin, you know, where the kids had all come together. He didn't think he deserved to be there. Did that happen to you?

That. Actually, I was one of the adjudicators. This kid came in with a boombox, and he played My Heart Will Go on. And I will never forget his performance. His mom just. She was just a big puddle of emotion because he played so beautifully. I mean, and it was just this teenage kid, and I'm like, dude, that was great.

Why.

Why did you choose that song? Oh, well, my mom really likes that song. And I said to him, you really enjoy playing, right? Yeah. So don't ever stop. Don't let anyone ever tell you anything different. If you love it, like, I know you do, I could tell by the way you played you were better than me when I was in high school. So keep it up. And, you know, that was just something. I will never forget that moment and the smile on his face because he. He felt validated from that performance. And I was like, you know what? Okay. Good stuff.

That was a great scene in the book. Christy just asked a question. She said, did you actually compete in the Tchaikovsky competition?

That is me living vicariously. Had I started when I was. I started playing violin when I was nine. Had I started when I was four or five, I would be at Ray's level, but unfortunately, I didn't get to. So Tchaikovsky Competition. That's me living through him.

Did you have a lot of obstacles? I know one of the themes in the book that I loved was I love books that open up my eyes to a part of the world that I might not think about or understand. And I'D never thought about how difficult it is for poorer children to learn how to play an instrument because. Simply because their parents can't afford for them to rent the instrument. Now, funny story about me. I played in the band when I was in fourth grade. I. We had like a band at our school, and we have to pick our instrument. And I. My mom's on here. She might be mad at me for saying this tonight, but I had my heart set on the saxophone. And my mom talked me out of it because it was so expensive to rent a saxophone. And she talked me into playing the clarinet. Apparently, the clarinet was a lot cheaper than the saxophone. So in some ways, I mean, I. I understand that because I didn't grow up in a wealthy home, but my parents could afford to rent me an instrument also. I don't play the clarinet. Just. Just took the. Did the band for, like, three years. But what was that like for you? How. How did you come to play the violin? You did you have lessons? And what was that like for you?

My story is very unorthodox. I started in a public school music program when I was in fifth grade. I was nine years old. And we just had to rent the instruments, like you mentioned, and the lessons were free, and I got out of class twice a week, you know, and I love that. That was the best part for me. So it was. It was difficult because as I grew to learn later playing an instrument, something like a stringed instrument, like a violin, it really is an investment. And, you know, if it comes down to paying the bills or paying the rental on your instrument, you know, the bills are going to have to win out. And there were lots of times when I did not have an instrument to play because we could not afford the payments. And, you know, I would have it for four months, and then I'd have to give it up for two months. And fortunately, there were a lot of people that gave me a lot of help. I had a ton of help, you know, with teachers finding an instrument for me in the interim before I could get my instrument back. And, you know, my first formal lesson, you know, I had group lessons, like in school, you take the class or, you know, the. Twice a week. In elementary school, my first formal lesson was my freshman year in college. That's the first time I ever had taken a lesson. And my very first teacher, man, he was something else. His name was Sir Trevor Williams of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He would fly from London to Greensboro, where I went to school twice a month. And I would have two lessons in A week. And then I would have two weeks with no lesson. And it was. He was an older gentleman and it was rough on him. And he would fall asleep during my lessons. And I remember one day I played A instead of a B flat during a Bach concerto. And he grabbed my hand because he was so tired and irritated. Bach would never write a major third here. What are you thinking? And I was like, all right, this might not be for me. And then he decided he wasn't going to stay there. And we got a really good teacher the next year. And she's the one who taught me everything that I know. And I'm so grateful for it.

Wow. So at what point in your childhood did you fall in love with classical music?

I think I was third grade. I heard Mozart for the first time in third grade, and it was just a general music class, you know, the teacher played Mozart Symphony number 43, and she sang this song. She was like, it's a bird, it's a plane, it's a Mozart. And I just. That was the best thing I'd ever heard in my life. So what is this? Why am I not listening to this all the time? And I loved it from that moment on. And every opportunity I got to listen to classical music. Did you know, back. Back then it was on the radio, maybe on the weekends, just on Sundays. And I would always have my ear glued to the radio on Sundays to hear classical music. And I loved it.

Wow. So were your parents. Please tell me that your parents were not like Rick's mom. Because I, you know, I know when you write a book, you want characters that people love and characters that people hate. And I know everybody watching is going to go crazy when I say this, but I truly hated Ray's mom. I was like, why? And this is my question for you. Why did you make her so mean? Like, who has a mom that mean? I just. I just couldn't. I could not handle her. So please explain to me why you made his mom so mean.

Okay, so first, my mom is not Ray's mom.

Okay?

Thank God he would never actively try to stop me from pursuing music. My mom was as supportive as she could be. And I intentionally left Ray's mom. I left her nameless. I did that intentionally. She was the way that she is. It could be because of one of two reasons. And I left it up to the reader to make the decision. Was she just a greedy, self centered, selfish person, or was that the only way she knew to protect Ray? You know, he was going into a field. He wanted to go into a field where it was almost impossible for someone who looked like him to have success. So was that her way of protecting him? So I left it up to the reader to decide.

Okay, everybody's chiming in, thankful it wasn't your mom and how much they didn't like her. And I will say that was how I coped with her, because I was like, okay, she. She's really trying to keep him from. She wants to give him a life, and she does not see how violin can be his life. But then she never turned. You know, like, even when he had proven, like, no, I'm really good at this. I'm making money, she still wasn't his biggest fan. And it just. I just. I just truly had a difficult time with her.

You're not the only one.

Okay, well, that's good. And if I were your mom, I would be mad at you, because I would be like, people are going to think that I was like that for you. So.

Well, I knew when I was writing it, my agent said the same thing, and I was like, you know what? My mom, it's going to go completely over her head. She'll never make the correlation, ever. And she hasn't. She really hasn't. It never even clicked. What, was he talking about me now? Never even crossed her mind. So don't worry. Don't worry.

Okay, good. Thank God. So I've heard a lot of authors say when they're writing that the characters will do something that they didn't realize that the character was going to do or something that surprised them. Was there any part of the story that kind of came out of you that surprised you?

I think a lot of Ray's resilience. There were times where he actually stood up for himself, you know, whereas other times in the book, he just kind of, you know, slunk in the background and let things happen, and then he would deal with it. But the times that he actually spoke up and spoke for himself, that was pleasantly surprising to me. You know, he got to the point when I was writing where it's like, you know, it's time for him to stand up for himself. You know, he's been just taking it and taking it and taking it, and he can stand up for himself in a very respectful way, which is a cornerstone of the book, you know, from him to maintain respect for himself and for everyone else. So it was pleasantly surprising for me that Ray had gotten to a point where he could actually stand up for himself.

Like when he fired the German guy.

Oh, yeah, yeah. I never saw that coming. I was like, oh, you know what? Okay. Yeah, this is good stuff.

Yeah, I love it. In the book, you write about at least two people who were like, your raise anchors, the grandmother and the teacher. So who? Tell me about some of those people in your personal life that were anchors for you as a musician, believe it or not.

Well, first, my grandma. My Grandma Nora. You notice I have a pink shirt on today. Grandma Nora. She was my actual grandmother. And as I was writing her dialogue, I could hear her right over my shoulder. I heard every word. And it was. It was so nice to be able to bring her, you know, to. To bring her to everyone, because that's just. She was that sweet in real life. She was that sweet and loving of a person. And Dr. Janice Stevens in the book is modeled after my violin teacher, Dr. Rochelle Vedder Wong. She literally taught me everything I know. She taught me how to play the violin, and she taught me how to teach, and I really wanted to pay tribute to her. When I let her read the manuscript, you know, she. She called me in tears. She's like, brendan, I can't believe you remembered all of these events that took place. This was like, 30 years ago. I was like, yeah, you taught me everything. And why would I not remember this stuff? Yeah, you're responsible for all of this was taking place. So I really wanted to pay homage to her.

Wow, that's really beautiful. Was she the reason that you decided to become a teacher?

Yes, absolutely. Because I knew what she had given me. She gave me confidence when I had none. You know, she inspired me. When I was lacking any type of inspiration, I wanted to quit, you know, and the feeling that I got for, you know, loving something, she taught me how to love it. And I was like, if I could do this for someone else, I know the feeling that it's given me. I would love to be able to do that for a kid in need. And I've gotten so much help, not only from her, but from so many other people that I really. She was my inspiration to go into education. I was like, absolutely. This is my calling.

Wow, that's so inspiring. So Jacqueline just asked, do you have a stride?

I do not have a Strad, but I do have a 7. 18th century French violin. It's from, like, 1750 something. And I need to take it to Paris to get it appraised properly because the guy that came down from Lloyd's of London couldn't. He couldn't name it, but he did give me the name and address of someone In Paris. That could do it. So my next trip to Paris, I'll go and make sure that I get it all taken care of, and we'll see. Not a Strat, but it's a nice little.

Is that your main instrument that you play? Is it playable?

Oh, yeah, yeah, I play it. I should be playing it tonight, but I have quartet rehearsal tomorrow, and, yeah, I need to practice because we have a Schubert quartet coming up. That's really hard.

Wow. So what are you doing now? Are you. Are you a performer? Are you an author? Are you a teacher?

I like to think that I'm a teacher first and foremost, but, you know, with the success of this book, it's been really, really difficult to both perform and to teach because I've been traveling so much for promotion for the book, and I spent a lot of time writing as well. So I'm actually going back to teaching. I'll be teaching all next week. I taught the week before. I had Covid last week, so I'm happy to be over that now. And I actually had to leave the orchestra that I was playing in because I was traveling so much. You know, our performances, they all conflicted with my travel date, so I was. Yeah, I'm gonna have to drop out of this for a while, so I'm just sticking with string quartets. Right now, I'm just doing a lot of chamber music.

Wow. All right. This is a big ask, but a lot of people are asking, can you play something for us?

If I were not on my phone, because I'm holding the phone, and I'm not all fancy, and I don't have a holder and everything, and my violin is way over there.

All right. All right, good.

Excuse me.

Sorry.

Next time.

All right. Is there anywhere where we can listen to your music? Do you have any recorded music?

If you really want to scour YouTube, you can hear some pretty mediocre orchestral performances of groups that I'm playing in. I'll just leave it at that. There's stuff out there, so I wouldn't. Look, I'll be putting some more stuff out. Like, my quartet is really going to start doing some recording, and those are going to be nice, good, solid recordings of good stuff. And that's. You want to wait to hear that?

All right, we'll wait for it. In the meantime, we're also waiting for. And here's the question. This is the next question everybody's asking. When is your next book, and what's it about?

All right, I can actually give you a teaser. I just checked My email and my. My editor, Edward Castenmayer from Anchor Books. He just. He's phenomenal. He just gave me a set of revisions to do. This is going to be draft three of my second book. It's called the Composer's Last Score, but it's not really music. Music, music. Don't worry about it. You don't have to be a musician. The elevator pitch is the America's preeminent composer. He's bigger than Bach, Beethoven, Mozart. Across the world, his 150th anniversary celebration is coming up, and the family who runs his foundation, his descendants, are planning a worldwide celebration. They hire a musicologist to do some research on him and to see why he's so beloved, especially in the black community, with all of his music. During his research, the musicologist discovers this guy may not have written any of his music, and it may have been appropriated from a black woman who we now know may have been living with autism. And the family will stop at nothing to keep it a secret.

Ah, that sounds amazing. So it's in process. You're still editing it, so we still have a while.

Yeah, a little bit. It's probably. It's going to be out in 23. Not quite sure what the release date is. It's, I think, originally February, but it might be pushed back a bit.

That sounds awesome. Everybody's really excited about it. Before we go, I would love to know, are there any organizations for those of us who are out there? We read the book, we loved it. And maybe there's an organization near us that we want to support that helps children get a love for music, that maybe are underprivileged. Anything you would recommend?

I cannot, because I'm in Washington, D.C. i can't really say anything on a local level, but I would recommend that everyone contact your art councils, your local arts councils. If there is a string program in the community that you live in, you know, definitely support them. They can always use monetary support or even just bodies showing up, you know, helping to move things. And if there is not an arts council, see what you can do to get one started. It's. The kids deserve it. The students deserve it. It's just going to help them. It'll. It'll do. Yes, I'm in D.C. whoever said that.

Yes, Donna's in D.C. too. She has a great church if you want to go visit. It's called Cap City Church.

You know, I know where I've seen that. I might do that. Yes. Yeah, just contact your arts councils because. Yeah, it's amazing. It's amazing. Absolutely amazing. Music does so much for everyone. And I do want to say someone. I saw someone. Sony has snagged the rights to the Violin Conspiracy and they are developing a limited series just like the Queen's Gambit right now. And I'm extra excited about that.

Oh my gosh. That's so fun. That's awesome. Oh, wow. I love it so much. I can't wait. I can't wait for more from you. And thank you so much. I know it's nighttime and you're very busy and we just loved your book and it was so fun getting to meet you and getting to chat with you about this amazing story.

Thank you so much, Holly. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

You're welcome. Have a great night.

You too. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Well, I hope you enjoyed that book and that conversation as much as I did. And if you like this video, make sure you like it. Subscribe Leave me a Comment if you've been reading anything good that you think our book club might like, let me know in the comments. And as always, if you would like to know more about how you can join the Holly Furtick Book Club, just go to hollyfurtic.com and sign up. Give us your email. We'll let you know what we're reading and when we're going to be discussing it live so that you can join us. And I hope you have a great day. Sam.