Credit: Rachel Barton Pine
I recently had a bout of insomnia and tuned into a local classical music radio station to hear something dreamy that would initiate some dozing off. However, the opposite occurred as I listened to a riveting recording of Rachel Barton Pine playing Mendelssohn’s violin concerto. She is a visionary artist who is equally at home with a variety of musical styles ranging from Baroque to jazz and rock, which is part of a solo and concerto repertoire that includes world premieres and eclectic mixture of composers like Franz Clement, Joseph Joachim, Florence Price, Aram Khachaturian, Augusta Reed Thomas and Malek Jandali. On July 27, she will play Billy Child’s Violin Concerto No. 2 at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Stéphane Denѐve, Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony and Artistic Director of the New World Symphony.
“I love performing as much great music as possible: the most famous masterpieces, neglected but wonderful historic works and the music of today,” says Pine. She continues, “The best thing about living composers is that you can ask them questions. When I put together set lists or recital programs, I love to mix familiar and unfamiliar music and music from different places and eras, to share whatever I’m most excited about with other music fans. I also love putting something personal into my music when possible by playing my own cadenza if the composer didn’t write one, or creating my own virtuosic encore arrangements.”
Pine’s stellar international career takes her to top-tier venues and appearances with orchestras that included a debut at age 10 with Erich Leinsdorf and the Chicago Symphony and continues with luminaries such as Zubin Mehta, Marin Alsop and Neeme Jӓrvi. The 1990’s yielded productive results with her being the youngest, at age 17 to receive a gold medal at the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition and top prizes at the Paganini Competition, among others - of which her recording of this composer’s 24 Caprices offers a breathtaking display of technical brilliance. (Avie, 2017).
Then in 1995, Pine’s bustling career was sideswiped for a couple of years by a horrendous accident. She was getting off a Chicago area commuter train when the door slammed shut on the straps of her bags, causing her to be dragged over 200 feet before passengers pulled the emergency brake. Subsequent multiple leg surgeries and physical therapy fortunately allowed the comeback kid to reemerge onto the concert stage tutta forza and continue to delight audiences with a sense of indefatigable enthusiasm and innovative programming that takes her playing to the highest level of musicianship and virtuosity.
Pine comments that although classical is her favorite, a fondness for other genres include Chicago blues, Scottish fiddling and heavy metal groups like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. And there is another side to Pine the performer, which is her philanthropic work in founding the Rachel Barton Pine Foundation to help aspiring classical musicians. The foundation also offers a project that promotes composers of African descent, some of whom are highlighted in her recordings Blues Dialogues (Cedille, 2018) and Violin Concertos by Black Composers that feature works by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, William Grant Still, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Joseph White. (Cedille, 1997/2023).”My Rachel Barton Pine Foundation’s Music by Black Composers project has numerous free resources on its website including directories of more than 300 living composers from all over the world and more than 150 historical composers going back to the 1700’s. And, check out the curated list of 40 men and women included in the coloring book which also includes a biography of every composer which you can Google to learn more about and listen to their music.”
Pine observes that some African-American composers like Jessie Montgomery and Carlos Simon are starting to receive more recognition, which is a very good thing because there is so much great music that has not been heard. “I truly believe this music would have been part of our usual repertoire all along, and now that we are finally exploring it, it’s a great time to be a classical listener. But just remember that if you hear a handful of interesting and beautiful pieces by composers whom you discover, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much great music by Black composers waiting to be heard.”
Last year, Pine premiered Billy Child’s second violin concerto, which she will be performing at the Hollywood Bowl on July 27. She reflects about the significance of having a work written for her. “In the opera world, the first interpreter of a newly written role is referred to as its creator. As an instrumentalist, I always keep in mind that I need to work closely with the composers to honor their wishes, but I also strive to bring my own personality to a work to bring it most fully to life for the first time. My dream is not only that I will get to perform it many more times, but also that colleagues will be inspired to take it up and give it their own spin.”
Pine says that Child’s concerto was scheduled for a premiere in 2020 but delayed due to the pandemic. And that difficulties experienced by many during this period directly influenced the emotional content of the work’s three movements, “but I don’t think it’s a work just of its specific moment in time. There are always challenging things happening in the world or in our own lives, and this concerto speaks to universal feelings about how we face these uncertainties. Billy Childs is simultaneously one of today’s great jazz and classical artists. His music combines both genres in a unique way that feels like a single organic language.”
Pine has previously collaborated with Childs on commissioned works such as Four Portraits for Violin and says his second violin concerto isn’t technically harder but “feels harder because Billy’s harmonies are so complex that many notes feel like they are missing when you just hear the solo violin part by itself. Each time an orchestra and I join together for the first rehearsal, it’s so satisfying to finally hear my part surrounded by all of the other instruments filling in the chords and rhythms.”
Rachel Barton Pine is a thought-provoking artist who is totally in tune with music trends then and now. “One of my missions is to introduce new listeners to the violin, so I enjoy going on rock radio stations to play a little Ozzy Osbourne or Metallica. Then I play something like Paganini to show how classical can also be intense, and I encourage people to come to the symphony. There’s nothing more gratifying than hearing that someone attended their very first orchestra concert and loved it.