Plenty of metalheads are aware of the influence of blues and rock on the earliest bands of their favorite genre, but predating all of these is an influence some may not have realized existed—the complex, bass-heavy pieces of classical musicians such as Richard Wagner and Niccolo Paganini. This March, the Utah Symphony will be performing one of Wagner’s orchestral suites from his four-part opera cycle The Ring. SLUG sat down with Utah Symphony violinist Alexander Martin and Communications Manager Ginamarie Marsala to talk about the upcoming performance and the similarities between classical and metal music.