As ‘Violin Dragoness,’ Cape Central senior Lydia Gentry discovers her love for playing the electric violin

Rush. It can be a sudden movement in a direction. It can be a flow of euphoria. It also can be the name of a classic rock band.

For Lydia Gentry, a freshly minted senior at Cape Girardeau Central High School, all the above apply to her violin -- a sleek, red, electric one at that.

She can be seen playing it in the morning, afternoon or evening in the downtown streets of Cape Girardeau as pedestrians pass.

They may be a little surprised to see the teen taking on the likes of Rush's "Subdivisions," both vocally and with violin, filling the air with an opus of classic rock and other genres. She goes by the persona of Violin Dragoness.

She estimates she's performed on the streets, with a donation chest, about 25 times since making her debut last September.

Lydia Gentry plays the electric violin Tuesday in front of the river wall in Cape Girardeau.BEN MATTHEWS

"When I did that, I didn't really have a name for myself, and I just really love names," Gentry said. "They're just cool, or nicknames. I just love mythical creatures. I love violin; I love dragons. I wanted a unique name, so I put Dragoness, like a female dragon. There you go."

It was another definitive step in the transition from a piano-playing child to pink-lighted-bow-wielding teen.

It's a process traced to listening to U2 and Rush with her father as a toddler and piano lessons at age 5.

The lessons continued to seventh grade, where she joined the Cape Junior High orchestra and chose violin over flute for no particular reason she can recall.

She played the classical music laid before her but realized by high school she might be pretty good and pursued personal lessons.

All remained conventional until an epiphany on the internet -- the work of Mark Wood and Lindsey Stirling. Both were electric violinists, and both rocked her world.

"That was just something I couldn't get out of my head," Gentry said. "I just had to experiment with that."

The laboratory opened when an electric violin arrived for Christmas her sophomore year.

"When I discovered electric violin, and I can mix that with music that I loved listening to, I was literally ...," Gentry trailed off, searching for words to describe the impact.

She elaborated by citing changes in her behavior.

She found herself getting away from sheet music and figuring out by ear the music from bands such as Rush, ELO and Fleetwood Mac.

"I've really developed playing by ear the last two years," Gentry said. "I can hear one note, and then I can usually have most of the song by the end of the day, if I practice enough."

In math class, she found herself concentrating on more pressing problems.

"We have laptops in high school, and I'd just be, like, in the middle of math class, just be searching on how to be an electric violinist," Gentry said. "Like how to fix this problem, just nerdy stuff like that."

Portable batteries for amps and foot pedals, including loop pedals for backtracking, were more intriguing.

BEN MATTHEWS ~ bmatthews@semissourian.com Lydia Gentry plays the electric violin on August 8, 2017, in front of the river wall in Cape Girardeau.

She purchased a lighted bow from The Electric Violin Shop in North Carolina, which she uses for effect in suitable conditions.

She's been working through the technology and the sounds, even creating a video for "Subdivisions," a compilation of footage from around Cape Girardeau combined with stock footage to accompany her violin and voice, meshed with guitar and drum tracking recorded by Central graduate George Kester.

"When I tapped into electric violin, there were so many artists out there that were just undiscovered, and they're making it, but no one has heard of them," Gentry said. "So I really got inspired by those people, and I just wanted to put stuff out there as well. It's just a love of the arts. It's really, really amazing just to be a part of that."

In July, she attended a weeklong camp directed by Wood, a co-founder of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, that was catered specifically for electric-bow instruments. She had made the mistake of watching a five-year-old video from the annual camp in Kansas City.

The participants were playing "Tom Sawyer" by Rush, and it left her with no other alternative but to attend.

BEN MATTHEWS ~ bmatthews@semissourian.com Lydia Gentry plays the electric violin on August 8, 2017, in front of the river wall in Cape Girardeau.

There she learned new techniques on tuning and distortion and how to "chop." She also found about 100 other like-minded musicians of all ages.

"It was a full week and it was the best experience of my life," Gentry said. "And that was almost like a confirmation that what I was doing was the right thing and it was something that I truly loved."

Gentry continues to play violin in the school band and also is in the student choir at Central. She performed "Subdivisions" in a solo performance at the spring concert.

She also is a member of the school's Thespian Club and will serve as an officer this year. She credits her participation, along with encouragement from her dad, with helping her to have the confidence to step into the role of street performer, yet another transformation.

"I've really made this my big passion over the last year," Gentry said. "I've just really dived headlong into it. It's just really been awesome. I don't regret it at all."

She hopes to attend Belmont University next year and pursue a degree in commercial music. Until then, she has another year to hone her ability and grow as a musician.

"I'm starting to write my own lyrics and hoping to release an EP of one original song and several other cover songs next year, around when I graduate, hopefully," Gentry said. "It's coming, but not yet."

For the girl with the Rush, there is no rush.

jbreer@semissourian.com

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