Charlie Siem is making classical music sexy again. He started playing with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, in London, at age 18. Later, he appeared in Armani, Dior, and Dunhill campaigns. Now 36, he’s a virtuoso violinist who has made his instrument popular among the likes of Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. (He serenaded Gaga at her C.F.D.A. Fashion Awards after-party.)
Siem wasn’t born into a long line of musicians. (Though he is related to Ole Bull, the prodigious 19th-century Norwegian violinist and composer.) Nor did overbearing parents hand him the violin at a young age. Instead, they played classical music for him and his two sisters to “develop [the] young children’s brains.”
