Christian Howes

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THE EARLY YEARS

Born Feb. 21, 1972, in Rocky River, Ohio, Llewellyn Christian Howes became interested in the violin at age five when his music-minded parents, Diana and Ralph Howes, enrolled him in the Suzuki Method Program of the Community Music School at Columbus, Ohio

Christian learned to hold a violin by practicing with a makeshift imitation -- a ruler taped to a Cracker Jack box -- constructed by his parents at the suggestion of his first Suzuki Program violin teacher, Virginia Christopherson. The imitation model was quickly replaced with an authentic violin, and he began his training with individual and group lessons twice a week in a program that emphasizes the child's emulative learning process, as well as the active participation of the parents. He progressed with recitals, workshops and institutes to become a musical prodigy, winning competitions, scholarships and the high praise of many of the region's top instructors.

Christian's early education, both academic and musical, blossomed from the outset. To satisfy his healthy appetite for more difficult musical challenges, he spent his summers practicing and competing with the region's best, including stints with the University of Massachusetts' International Suzuki Teachers' Conference (1981), The Chautauqua Youth Orchestra (1986), The Chautauqua Music School Festival Orchestra (1987), The Ohio University's Festival of Strings (1988) and the Ohio Department of Education's Martin W. Essex School for the Gifted (1988).

After completing his Suzuki training in 1985, Howes continued individual instruction with The Columbus Symphony Orchestra's Olev Viro and at the same time expanded his musical talents in a variety of high school-related activities. He played guitar in the Delaware Hayes High School Jazz Band, and participated in the school's Concert Choir and Singers Show Choir as well as the Ohio Wesleyan University Regional Honors Choir.

He maintained his private instruction and became concertmaster of four different orchestras (Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestra, Hayes High School Orchestra, The Ohio State University Orchestra, East-Central Ohio Regional Orchestra). In addition, he participated in a variety of rock and blues bands and ensembles elementary students and began to develop his skill in arranging and composing.

SIDE TRACKED

Everything was looking good for Howes and his future with a successful career as a classical violinist. However, the unexpected turn of events that happened in the next few months grounded his budding music career.

Shortly after turning 20 in 1992, he was convicted of selling LSD to an undercover officer and sentenced to six to 25 years. "During the two year period prior to my incarceration, I lost my focus," explains Howes, in reference to the rebellious period of his teenage youth. "I realize I made really poor choices, not only through my involvement with drugs specifically, but also by acting without consideration towards people who cared about me. I wasn't acting responsibly to my family, friends, colleagues, professors or employers, and in retrospect, I regret that in that time of my life I was very irresponsible."

During his prison term, Howes was able to grow personally, emotionally and culturally as well as musically. Although he was forced to stop attending OSU, he continued his education while incarcerated by taking a mixture of classroom and correspondence courses from The Ohio University (1993-94) and Urbana University (1994-96). He also made the most of his time on the inside to hone his musical skills.

To keep those skills sharp, Howes began participating almost daily in a short-lived prison music program at the medium-security Ross Correctional Institution in Chillicothe. After the program was cut, he was transferred in June of 1994 to the London Correctional Institution where he was limited to outdoor practices and a weekly two-hour session with other prisoners in a run-down band room.

Nevertheless, he became greatly inspired by other prison inmates, their cultural diversity and backgrounds, and the process that they brought to music making as self-taught musicians. He was so affected by his experience in prison that, upon his release in 1996, he immediately set out to include several unusual prison recordings on his first album.

[edit] BACK ON TRACK

Christian formed Accent Productions in the fall of 1996 to help put his career back on track. Less than a year later, the production company produced Christian's first album - Confluence - featuring several tracks performed by himself and fellow inmates in the London Correctional Institution and a variety of recordings performed live in Columbus.

"This album documents my experience and evolution as a musician and as a person," explains Howes on the album. "It includes the sounds of my many mentors, some of whom play in symphonies or professional jazz ensembles, some who may only be otherwise heard behind bars. It is not only the sublimation of struggles to create my identity - musically and personally - but the confluence of disparate cultural and musical streams that flow through me as a result of my experience."

While putting together his first album, he also landed opportunities to expand his musical horizons by composing for films, directing and arranging for ensembles, teaching workshops, performing for charity and recording with other artists.

Since then Howes has continued to expand and diversify his musical endeavors.

SHARING LIFE LESSONS LEARNED

Whenever possible, Christian likes to take the opportunity when he performs to help pass along some important messages compiled from the life lessons he has learned. In addition to his club and concert performances, Christian's audiences are made up of a variety of fans: underprivileged youth from a local teen center, university music students or even fifth-grade graduates of a community D.A.R.E program.

"I speak about the dangers of drugs, and about multi-culturalism and the temptations to hate based on cultural or socioeconomic difference," Christian explains. "I speak about how analogous it is for me to be struggling to find my voice and identity as a musician, and at the same time struggling to find my own personal identity in the midst of the diverse communities to which I belong.

The most powerful lesson I learned in prison is to have respect for each individual's experience. In my life, I would like to use my position as an artist to help make the world a place which is more respectful of the diverse experiences that different people have."