Thereminist
Los Angeles, California

Charlie Lester makes music out of thin air. No strings are attached to his instrument, nor are there keyboards, fingerboards, valves, hammers, or pipes. There is nothing to blow into or onto. But he does use his hands. A theremin’s electronic components set up low-power, high-frequency electromagnetic fields around two antennae, one of which controls pitch, the other volume. The player alters the fields—and the resulting sounds—by moving his hands closer to or farther from the antennae. Like the mode of playing, the music produced is eerie and otherworldly, which inspired its frequent use in early suspense films. Charlie was first drawn to the instrument when he saw a film about its inventor, Leon Theremin, a Russian physicist who created the theremin in 1918. A self-taught and left-handed thereminist, Charlie has taken the instrument to new heights, performing for the dedication of the Disney Music Hall in Los Angeles as well as in several TV commercials and the movie Monster Makers.