Ken Ford (violinist)

Early years

Born in St. Louis, Ken Ford lived in Detroit, Michigan before his parents moved with their only child to make their permanent home in Atlanta, Georgia. With his father as a DJ, Ford grew up surrounded by the sounds of jazz, blues, and R&B from Earth, Wind & Fire to Al Green and more. After trying numerous instruments, at the age of nine Ford settled on the violin. In his Atlanta school years, he trained classically on the violin, with training from various members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and became a founding member of the DeKalb Youth Pops Orchestra. With his talents and passion for violin, Ford also joined the African American Philharmonic Orchestra (AAPO), working his way up to the esteemed position of Concert Master. While playing with the AAPO, he also performed for the Barry White. Growing up hearing different genres, Ford also followed his father's footsteps for a time as a DJ, and counts Stevie Wonder and pioneering violinists Noel Pointer and Jean-Luc Ponty among his musical influences. At his mother's urging to pursue education with a backup career path, Ford also completed a degree in Computer Information Systems.

Indulging his passion for violin at night in Atlanta’s sizzling music scene while living a dual life working as an IT programmer during the day, Ford’s talents attracted more and more attention from fans and peers, putting his career as a musician on the fast-track. He became a fixture on Atlanta's diverse music scene and his renown grew from the sounds of jazz, hip-hop and R&B he was playing on the electric violin, enthralling audiences wherever he went. With his passion for the violin and increasing success as an artist, he decided to make the leap full-time to music after finding himself unemployed in the mid 90s.

Career

Following the leap into music and pursuing electric violin full speed ahead, Ford has also taken the sound of strings to another level from edgy and funky to contemporary, on stage and into the recording studio with a range of superstar artists including Bruno Mars, Chaka Khan, Ledisi, Lalah Hathaway, Wyclef Jean, Maxwell, Cee Lo Green and more.

Ford has released a trio of albums, with his following multiplying on each successive album: Burnt Toast (2001), Chevelle Lane (2003), and his third, the 2009 release Right Now. His fourth album State of Mind, was most recently released on August 16, 2011 on the new Twelve Music Group label.

An Atlanta fixture as a musician and activist, Ford is also an ardent supporter of keeping music education alive in the schools, playing and hosting benefits, and meeting with youth wherever he can while touring, to educate them on music appreciation as part of his foundation. In July 2010 he created The Ken Ford Foundation to advocate for the role of arts and music in enhancing a child's education, creativity and self-confidence, as well as dispelling unpopular notions about violin and stringed instruments among youth as an unexciting instrument solely for classical music. Ford has also been announced to perform in the Otis Redding celebration "An Evening of RESPECT" taking place September 10, 2011 in Macon, Georgia. The musical tribute will also benefit Redding's Big "O" Youth Educational Dream Foundation, a foundation founded to help youth improve in access to educational opportunities and enhance awareness of music, arts and the humanities.

Discography