Yasmeen Al-Mazeedi strode across the stage of L.A. Live’s Nokia Theatre, violin in hand, illuminated by the lights, sounds and colors of the stage. As the opener for the 2013 American Music Awards, Al-Mazeedi was among the first performers to be heard that night.
Al-Mazeedi was only a third-year student at UCLA at the time. As well as performing at the American Music Awards, the 2015 alumna recorded with Oscar-winning film score composer Hans Zimmer and played alongside pop singer Jason Derulo while studying at UCLA.
Since completing these gigs, Al-Mazeedi said she plans to move forward to pop music by starting a philanthropy-based contemporary music ensemble made up exclusively of UCLA instrumentalists. The group’s name, she said, is still in the works.
Al-Mazeedi said that it was during a performance at a nursing home while she was a UCLA student that she realized how much of a difference she could make with music. She said when she played her violin for one woman with Alzheimer’s, the patient’s eyes lit up as she suddenly recovered a pleasant memory.
“That’s when it really hit me,” Al-Mazeedi said. “I can do something with my music.”
Being at UCLA also gave Al-Mazeedi an entryway into her first pop performance as a violinist in the opener of the 2013 American Music Awards. Through a friend at UCLA, Al-Mazeedi said she met and began making videos with YouTube-famous musicians Kurt Hugo Schneider and Sam Tsui, who in turn recommended the violinist for the opening act to the Coca-Cola sponsors of the award show.
“(The American Music Awards) were where things started to snowball,” Al-Mazeedi said.
From there, Al-Mazeedi said she began performing in music videos and in recording studios. The same year as her American Music Awards debut, she said she was invited to record on Jason Derulo’s song “The Other Side” and at composer Hans Zimmer’s Santa Monica studio for an upcoming film project.
Al-Mazeedi said her experiences gave her the realization that her music could have an impact beyond just entertainment. The violinist then began reaching out to her network of UCLA-based musician friends to put together an ensemble of an electric string quintet, synth, drums and guitar, with Al-Mazeedi on electric violin and vocals.
Though the exact platform hasn’t yet been finalized, Al-Mazeedi said she also plans for her ensemble to play for philanthropic causes. She said she wants to do fieldwork performing for victims of sex trafficking or mental health patients.
Brita Tastad, a UCLA alumna who studied violin performance and joined the ensemble, said she had no hesitations in agreeing to join given Al-Mazeedi’s enthusiasm for the project.
“When (Al-Mazeedi) focuses on one thing, she gives it 110 percent,” Tastad said. “She’s got a lot of spunk. … She’s definitely taking the lead.”
Movses Pogossian, a professor of violin and Al-Mazeedi’s private instructor during her four years in UCLA’s music department, said he thinks a distinct quality of Al-Mazeedi’s ability as a violinist and performer is her outgoing personality.
“You can be a good player but you may not go anywhere in performing arts unless you have something unique … and (Al-Mazeedi) does have it,” Pogossian said. “She brings it out in the way she shapes her phrases, and that’s in classical pieces and in pop tunes.”
A classically trained violinist, Al-Mazeedi, who graduated in June, said her music education from UCLA encouraged her transition to the commercial music world starting in her third year. She said the rigorous classical training gave her a solid foundation of violin technique that has made playing pop music much easier, since all music has line, pitch and phrasing regardless of genre.
Al-Mazeedi said she relishes the attention from performing both live and in recordings, keeping her interested in popular music performance. At the same time, she said she has found the most meaning in music by using her talents to aid others and further causes, a trend she hopes to continue with her new ensemble.
“I want to use music to change something,” Al-Mazeedi said. “I believe that people are here to help other people, otherwise what good are you doing?”