Thursday night, Grammy award-winning bluegrass artist Michael Cleveland played a nearly sold-out show on campus and this musician’s piece of advice to Bloomsburg students pursuing a career in the performing arts is to do it because you love it.
“I play music because I love it and it’s not only that I love it, but it’s all I think about. Yeah, it’s like from the time I wake up, I go there. I think about music, and it was always that way, and so I’d say whatever you do, you know you have to love it in order to do it and be all in, you know.”
Cleveland had been sure of his dreams since he was only four years old. He had been attending a warranty Boston special where he heard a song that just captivated him, and ever since, he knew he had to play.
“And so when I started school later that year at the Kentucky School for the Blind in Louisville, Kentucky, they had classical music programs that taught Suzuki violin, cello, and all the string instruments, and so my parents signed me up for that, and I remember going into the classroom, and the teacher, Ms. Nolan, asked me, ‘Hey, so what is it about the violin, why do you want to learn it?’ I said, well, I know a lot about the fiddle, and I want to learn how to play Orange Bottom Special.”
Despite knowing from a young age what he wanted to do, Cleveland faced many obstacles on his way. He was born blind and later lost 80% of his hearing from a childhood ear infection. As if this wasn’t an obstacle enough, Cleveland was no natural when it came to learning the violin.
“Probably a couple of years before I could really start making any progress, and you know, a lot of people [like] my parents, they thought that I probably wouldn’t play for a long time, just because there was so little progress. But then all of a sudden, I guess something clicked, I started making a little headway.”
Even with all of these obstacles, Michael Cleveland has gone to become one of the top fiddle players in bluegrass music and is a Grammy Award winner, as well as a 12-time winner of the IBMA Fiddle Player of the Year. This was made clear than when he took to the stage and played some of his top hits such as “The Lovin’ of the Game,” “Sunny Days Are Coming Once Again,” “The One,” and “Tennessee Plates” on Thursday night.
