Chelsey Green and The Green Project Will Perform for the Wheaton Community This Friday

Chelsey Green received her first violin when she was four years old.

After a chance meeting with a concert violinist at a copy store, Green’s mother arranged lessons for her then five-year-old daughter with that musician. With many relatives performing in the jazz and funk scenes, Green’s mother wanted a classical musician in the family. Green says, “I never felt pushed by my family into music. They provided me with the opportunities and I loved it.”

Green has studied the violin for more than 20 years. However, she put that instrument down for many years while she exclusively focused on the viola in college and graduate school. She continues her formal studies of the viola at the University of Maryland, starting the third year of a doctoral program this fall.

Looking for an alternate form of expression from the symphonic viola, Green picked up her violin and began playing with The Green Project in 2009.

Describing their sound as a fusion of many different genres blended with the sound of the violin, Green says, “I try to keep the warmth and vibrancy of the violin during each performance. People can embrace an acoustic violin in a different way from a concert violin.”

On Friday evening, Green will play with band members, James McKinney (keyboard), Kevin Powe, Jr. (electric bass guitar) and Brian “Spyda” Wheatley (drums). Green says she looks forward to playing a “fun, lively show of some of your favorite contemporary songs mixed with original music.”

She says “The Green Violinst” is a multi-meaning label for herself. “It’s my last name, but also shows my very strong commitment to the environment. It also symbolizes how I am new in the contemporary scene.”

See Chelsey Green and The Green Project at 7 p.m. in Wheaton Triangle. See the full summer schedule .