Cedar Falls native Blue Violin returns for Candlelight Christmas concert in Coralville

It was certainly worth the drive from Cedar Falls to Iowa City for Christopher Vuk. After starting with the Suzuki School as a preteen in Cedar Falls, Vuk graduated to Iowa City’s renown Preucil School of Music.

Director Emerita Doris Preucil taught Vuk the violin, and her young charge, who was a 14-year-old student, now tours as the Blue Violin.

“Doris Preucil was fantastic,” Vuk said while calling from his Colorado Springs home. “We would drive over an hour to get to the school, but it was worth it.”

Vuk, who plays a blue violin, will return to perform Friday at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts. Don’t expect him to get very sentimental.

“I wish I could say we did more in Coralville. We would maybe go to the Coralville mall and grab a Cinnabon and then go ice skating,” Vuk said. “It wasn’t about hanging out in Coralville. We usually just went home. What I remember is that I used to get out of school early to go for my lesson.”

Vuk’s high school had no problem with an extracurricular activity during school hours.

“That's because I always had good grades,” he said.

The hard work at high school and at the Preucil School of Music paid off, since Vuk has a career in which he follows his passion. He loves playing the electric violin and looks forward to his Candlelight Christmas tour.

“This is our second year,” he said. “It’s always fun doing a Christmas show, especially doing the candlelight tour. The candles are beautiful. They help set the stage.”

Holiday showstoppers

Vuk went on a 10-city tour in 2023, and his holiday show has expanded to 17 dates this year.

“The difference between this show and comparable shows is this production is bigger,” he said. “The goal is to make this more exciting.”

The Blue Violin show starts with a bang with Vuk delivering a dub step “Jingle Bells.” He also bangs a bass drum during “Little Drummer Boy” while playing violin.

“I call it violin boxing,” he said. “It makes it fun, having movement in the show. I dance around a bit. It’s a very active performance.”

The charismatic Vuk engages the audience, but the highlight of the concert is the music. He showcases an array of Christmas songs such as “Silent Night,” “Coventry Carol” and “Sleigh Ride.”

He also delivers Ed Sheeran’s version of “Merry Christmas.”

“My engineer comes up and sings that one,” Vuk said. “That song is always a good time.”

But he also includes a healthy dose of pop and rock hits. Vuk rearranges Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” and Kenny Loggins’ “Footloose.” Vuk continues in a cinematic vein with the themes from “Despicable Me” and “The Greatest Showman.” And a left-of-center version of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Freebird.”

The showstopper is the Charlie Daniels Band’s “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

“That might be my favorite song to play,” Vuk said. “It’s so much fun. It’s such a great violin song.”

Other favorites are Vuk’s versions of Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire” and Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”

Vuk attempts to mimic the voice with his violin. He adopts a melismatic approach to his violin, in which a single syllable is stretched out to fit more than one musical note.

“Singers like Ariana Grande have all of those extra notes at the end of a phrase, and it works so well,” Vuk said. “They incorporate a lot of cascading and ascending notes. They’ll do a bend vocal technique in which they go up or down. I do a lot of that to make the violin like a voice.”

Career highlights

It’s been a fascinating career for the founder and former member of the Boston String Quartet, who has performed in front of a number of luminaries, including former-President George H.W. Bush, and Jordan’s widowed Queen Noor and current Queen Rania.

“It was so cool performing in front of the Bush family,” Vuk said. “I talked with President Bush and he asked me about bass fishing. I’m not sure where that was coming from.”

Vuk performed on “Sesame Street” with former first lady Laura Bush.

“Elmo was hiding behind a piano and when he jumped out, I was surprised that Elmo is such a big dude,” Vuk said. “That was wild.”

After the tour concludes, Vuk will hang out in Cedar Falls for nearly three weeks.

“It’s what I need, since I’ll just chill and read and get ready for the start of the next tour, which is in Australia,” he said.

Once Vuk completes the jaunt Down Under, he’ll prepare for a show with the Prague Philharmonic, focusing on the music of Coldplay.

“I like rock and I really love Coldplay,” Vuk said. “It’s so much fun playing Coldplay songs on the violin.”

Coldplay is quite different from what Vuk learned at the Preucil School of Music.

“It’s wonderful to be able to do this for a career,” he said. “I can’t express how much I enjoy it.”