UNM senior Renée Hemsing, a violin-performance major, said violinists are more romantic than the general population because of their zest for lush, sad strings. She began playing when she was 9 and now makes a living performing with the San Juan Symphony in Durango, Colo., the Roswell Symphony Orchestra and the Santa Fe Pro Musica Orchestra. She also subs in the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra and plays in the UNM Symphony Orchestra. Her music mentor is a magician.

Daily Lobo: Were you forced into it, or were you like, “Mom, I love the strings!”?

Renée Hemsing: I was definitely not forced, but it was just something we had in my family. My grandma played violin for about 85 years. And I have five siblings, so there’s six kids in my family, and we all grew up playing violin.

DL: Wow. Did you guys have, like, bluegrass hoedowns where you’re all playing together?

RH: Well, I don’t think it was ever bluegrass. It was more just classical and then it’s just kind of diverted to metal. I don’t really do a lot of that, but the rest of my family does.

DL: Diverted to metal? Like, they’re heavy-metal violinists?

RH: They studied violin. They started off on violin, but they’ve gone off to other instruments. They’ve maintained their roots in violin, but that’s about it.

DL: So they wear black shirts with band names on them?

RH: They don’t look like metalheads so much. I mean, about as much as I look like one. I appreciate the music, but I don’t really like whatever that is.

DL: What do you like?

RH: Classical is what I listen to. It’s my whole life.

DL: So do you have any big dreams for your skills beyond these local symphonies?

RH: Yeah, just to keep playing orchestra but play in a bigger orchestra that is full time … more of a salary orchestra.

DL: Like in Italy?

RH: It could be anywhere, like in Italy. Totally. I mean, I would be really interested in Europe.

DL: Have you been there?

RH: Yeah. I went to Paris. I went through Austria and Germany, and I did a music festival in northern Italy.

DL: So you did play in Italy … so I was right?

RH: Yeah, totally … It’s an international music festival, and it’s called Schlern. It’s in the north, like in the Alps. It’s in the northernmost part of Italy where they speak German. It was only part of Italy since the first world war.

DL: So tell me about studying at UNM. How is that?

RH: I came to UNM because of the violin professor here, Carmelo de los Santos.

YDL: Yeah, I heard he’s magical.

RH: He is. He actually is a magician. But … did you know that?

DL: No! Haha. That’s so weird.

RH: No, but he does magic.

DL: I didn’t even know that.

RH: Well, he’s like a magician-level magic maker. That was one of the first things — I walked into orchestra one day, an orchestra that I play in Santa Fe, and he was my stand parent, and I didn’t know who this guy was. But he was like, “Hey, watch this!” and he started playing, and, I mean, you hold the bow normally like this, and he took his thumb off the bow so there’s no way…

DL: It looked liked he was playing without holding the bow.

RH: Yeah, and he does all these things. And I knew, I was like, “This guy’s cool, and he’s really good. Wow. I have to study with him.” So he’s great. He’s an incredible violinist. So I really like that about UNM.

DL: Carmelo?

RH: He’s the reason why violinists are here.

DL: Oh, so everyone thinks this.

RH: I mean, the violin studio is 10 times the size it was when he first got here.

DL: Have you ever had some violin performance gone totally wrong?

RH: One time I was playing a solo in an orchestra up in Santa Fe, which is an hour away from where I live. And I somehow brought my violin case without my violin in it. It weighs nothing compared to the case! So you pick it up, and you can’t tell if it’s in there. So that sucked. Somebody had an extra, so that was good.

DL: Is it weird to play someone else’s violin?

RH: Yeah, very weird but, luckily, a guy had an extra had one that was made by the same maker as mine. How completely random is that?