Music has been my most consistent and extensively practiced medium. It was not something that I started doing consciously or intentionally. I was an infant. My mother propped me on one knee and plucked her violin in front of me. That was the instant I first felt my thread, somewhere, distant and pulling. Something unnamable is at the other end. I have yielded to its pull, following the tension of this thread ever since that day. I consider art and writing to be essential elements in my process, but I consider music to be where those things are leading to—it is the top of my chain. Music for me is the ultimate: it integrates and binds together my whole being, connects the rhythm of my breath to the resistance and strength of my muscles, the rhythm of speaking to the uninterrupted flow of spontaneous singing sound. Music connects the largest systems of my body to the finest ones, marries my analytical mind to my emotional one. Music tells me how to move and what to do with this form I’ve been living in, this form I’ve been given.

Limbic Hymnal, is a conversation—a reconciliation and communion—between the two parts of myself that are often in conflict but that ultimately help each other over the course of every journey: the emotional part that drives the quest, and the spiritual part that already knows and is waiting to tell.

Roseminna Watson

Roseminna McLeod Watson began work on the violin at the age of three, and one year later finally acknowledged her need for some help with the endeavor. Her mother, Clyde Watson, taught her for the following six years until she went on to study at the New England Conservatory’s Preparatory School with Melba Sandberg and Magdalena Richter. Ms. Watson holds a B.A. in Graphic Design from Yale University, a Masters in Violin Performance from Stony Brook University and an Artist’s Diploma in Chamber Music from San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She has had the opportunity to collaborate in performance with many renowned artists including Menahem Pressler, Natasha Brofsky, Jean-Michel Fonteneau, Axel Strauss, Paul Hersh, David Tanenbaum, Jennifer Culp, Jodi Levitz and Donald Weilerstein. Her primary teachers include Clyde Watson, Melba Sandberg, Magdalena Richter, Syoko Aki, Soovin Kim, Ani Kavafian, Pamela Frank, Philip Setzer, Ian Swensen, and Mark Sokol.

Ms. Watson is the former first violinist of the Aiana String Quartet, winners of the 2011 String Prize at the Coleman International Chamber Music Competition. From 2011-2013, the ensemble was the Young Professional String Quartet in Residence at the Butler School of Music at UT Austin under the mentorship of the Miró Quartet. Since Aiana’s amicable dissolution in 2013, Ms. Watson has been rebalancing her energy and continuing her life-long exploration of multiple expressive disciplines—painting, writing, video, and composition. Her fascination with the human body as a vehicle that carries us closer to the divine is evident in her work across mediums. Roseminna currently performs as a solo-act multimedia artist / singer / songwriter / violinist, is a frequent collaborator with dancers, artists, and other musicians, and is a founding member of HummingOwl—a duo with her singer /songwriter / sitarist husband, Pablo Escalante. She is excited to announce the recent release of her first solo album, LIMBIC HYMNAL, which features her own original cover art.

More on Roseminna Watson's work can be found on our Links page.