Learning who we are is an adventure through time and place. Do you know your true name? Do you feel you’ve been seen, or that you have really seen yourself?
This beautiful duo of talented sisters, violinist Chauntee Ross and cellist Monique Ross, calling themselves SistaStrings, perform a haunting pizzicato piece that has stayed with me ever since I heard it. They are classically trained musicians who were home schooled, and all their siblings play as well.
During an interview in On Milwaukee magazine online, Chauntee says,
“I grew up playing in a string quartet with my three older sisters. Monique is two years older than myself and then there’s my sister Sharice who played violin and our oldest sister Rickena who played viola. We called ourselves “Sisters of PraiZe.” We played some pretty cool gigs. I remember a lot of nursing homes and even juvenile detention centers we would go and play. We even got to open for gospel legend Fred Hammond when he came to Milwaukee. Our mom managed us and I learned a lot! Our quartet kept dwindling down as my sisters went off to college and started families until it was just Monique and me. We didn’t officially start SistaStrings until we both were back in Milwaukee after college and discovered the amazing local music scene Milwaukee has.”
It has been several years since I’ve written a post here. I saw a girl, and her name was me, an older, widowed, energetic mother, daughter, cousin, aunt and friend. A survivor of great loss and stronger for it. I saw a girl and she was…me.
If you still follow me after all this time, thank you! And welcome back.
