Happy Hanukkah from Violinist extraordinaire Rachel Barton Pine. She says: I'm so grateful to the Chicago Children's Choir for introducing my daughter Sylvia to this beautiful Hebrew song. CCC  inspires and unites youth from diverse backgrounds to become global citizens through music. In just the last few months, Sylvia has taken classes about Latin America, jazz, and gospel music, opening her eyes to different peoples and cultures through song. And, fun fact, CCC sang at Greg's and my wedding! Sylvia's current bio reads; Described as "adorable and formidable" by the Illinois Times, nine-year-old Sylvia Pine began violin studies at age two and a half with Isabelle Rozendaal and currently studies with Davis King. She made her radio debut in October 2018 on the nationally syndicated show Performance Today. Between March and September, 2020, Sylvia was to have given solo performances with five orchestras, including the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, the Rockford Symphony, and a tour of Israel with the Tel Aviv Soloists, with works including Schindler's List and concertos by Bach and Vivaldi. Sylvia has given solo performances for WFMT, the Musicians Club of Women, the Museum of Science and Industry's Christmas Around the World, the Illinois Symphony's annual gala, the American String Teachers Association National Conference in Albuquerque, the Suzuki Association of the Americas National Conference in Minneapolis, and the 100th anniversary convention of the National Association of Negro Musicians. She has also given numerous performances around the U.S. and beyond at schools, retirement homes, homeless shelters, and children's hospitals. Sylvia has won First Prize in London's International Great Composers Competition Art of Strings, First Prize in the Music Festival in Honor of Confucius Competition, Second Prize and the Special Prize for the Best Korean Piece at the Sejong Music Competition, and Honorable Mention at the Tutti Chamber Music Camp's Concerto Competition. Sylvia is assistant concertmaster of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra's Debut Orchestra. She attends group violin class at Northwestern University's Strings Academy and chamber music at the Music Institute of Chicago and the New Music School. She also studies viola, baroque violin, medieval rebec, American old-time fiddling, Scottish fiddling, electric rock violin, improv, music theory, piano, recorder, and voice. In 2019, she made her vocal debut in Bernstein's Chichester Psalms with the St. Pauls UCC choir and orchestra, and she belongs to the Chicago Children's Choir. She has composed dozens of works and participates in the Tucson Symphony's Young Composers Project. On December 23, Sylvia will celebrate her 1,400th day in a row of practicing. Sylvia is a lifelong home schooler. In addition to music, she enjoys reading, writing stories, playing in the woods, drawing, and learning about different species of mythical creatures. She is vegan and loves all animals. www.sylviapine.com WATCH 9-year-old Sylvia Pine perform this traditional Hanukkah song S'Vivon ("Spinning Top"). Watch the attached video

The American violinist; Rachel Barton Pine is joined by WQXR: NYC broadcaster; Elliott Forrest to give lessons in support of battered women and children. The pair's Zoom classes will be auctioned off online from November 20th-28th as part of a larger fundraiser held by the Los Angeles House of Ruth, a shelter for the abused. Barton Pine, the violinist, will provide a violin-specific course while Forrest, will give two classes on juggling. "We have found over 40 years that our clients who are victims of domestic violence and those who are homeless have one thing in common: They do not have family or friends to help them," Executive Director of the Los Angeles House of Ruth, Jennifer Gaeta, said. "So, we become their family: getting them back on their feet by providing counseling, tutoring, parenting and anger management classes, referrals and so much more prior to transitioning them into section 8 housing for which we have a remarkable 90% success rate." The auction will feature over 100 items and/or experiences. SEE The Violin Channel PAGE

This Saturday, April 4, 2020 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/5pm PT, OurConcerts.live, a new online channel and streaming service, will bring together some of the industry's biggest stars for a virtual benefit concert. All proceeds will go to the Artist Relief Tree, a fund created in the past few weeks to financially support artists who are affected by cancellations due to COVID-19. The concert will feature pianists Emanuel Ax and Jon Kimura Parker, mezzo-soprano J'Nai Bridges, violinist Rachel Barton Pine, clarinetist Anthony McGill, and harpist Bridget Kibbey. Tickets are available on the OurConcerts.live website (http://www.ourconcerts.live), with contributions beginning at $5. "The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected all of our lives, classical musicians and audiences among them. We're thrilled and grateful to be working with this wonderful group of artists, who are all generously donating their time, to bring live music to viewers everywhere while raising much needed funds to support the classical musicians who currently lack the ability to earn a living," says John Zion, Managing Director of MKI Artists and OurConcerts.live co-founder. OurConcerts.live is a new online channel and streaming service that promotes the creation and widespread distribution of high quality, live classical music by uniting artists, presenters, and audiences. It allows performers to share their art from almost any setting, whether from home using a computer or smartphone, or from a studio or venue with a professional, multi-camera set-up. Performances can be viewed on a computer, tablet, mobile device, or cast to a television. In the near future, they will also be available via services like Roku or Amazon Fire. "Our hope is that this venture will give performers and presenting organizations an income doing what they do best – enriching the lives of their audiences," says OurConcerts.live co-founder Gregory Pine. In contrast to free streaming events, which rely on advertising for revenue, OurConcerts.live, in collaboration with presenting organizations, sells tickets to live events. The service intends to offer subscriptions that will include access to multiple live concerts as well as on-demand content. The revenue from ticket sales and subscriptions will then be shared with both artists and presenting organizations. OurConcerts.live was co-founded by John Zion – who helms the leading classical music management agency MKI Artists – and experienced tech entrepreneur Gregory Pine. SEE THE PIX11 PAGE

Rachel Barton Pine, joined multi-faceted conductor Teddy Abrams and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra for a new Dvořák and Khachaturian Violin Concertos release on AVIE Records.  The album, featuring Dvořák's Violin Concerto in A minor Op. 53 and Khachaturian's Violin Concerto in D minor, highlights each composer's prominent use of his own traditional ethnic music. The recording marks Pine's 39th recording and fifth on AVIE records.  95.5KHFM: Albuquerque classical host, Brent Stevens interviewed RBP recently and the violinist spoke about the new recording.     Listen to the attached interview

What happens when you have hall and a producer reserved and ready to go, and your musical collaborator has to back out at the last minute? If you're violinist Rachel Barton Pine, you find a new collaborator, and you record two concertos that have been on your bucket list for a long time. Teddy Abrams and the Scottish National Orchestra join Rachel on her 39th recording, which features violin concertos by Antonin Dvorak and Aram Khachaturian. The violinist said: "The Dvorak and Khachaturian are both ones that I've performed frequently over the years. And they were both on my list of things I hoped to record in my lifetime, but I'd never thought of putting them together. I happened to be playing both of them that same season. It really struck me that both of them were very inspired by Eastern European folk music and had that wonderful flavor infusing them. And I thought they would go really well together. So that's how it happened. Very, very spontaneous." READ & LISTEN TO THE New Classical Tracks SEGMENT

Violinist and Classroom mascot Rachel Barton Pine is back to teach all about the violin concertos of Czech composer Antonin Dvorak and Soviet-Armenian Aram Khachaturian. Learn about their lives and music! Get lost with Dvorak in NYC! Hear about Khachaturian becoming a new father! Find out who threw shade at Dvorak and mucked up his concerto composing process, and how Khachaturian wrote his concerto in a blissed-out creative flurry. Also, learn about what makes "folk music" folksy and other music…not. Music in this episode is all from Rachel's new album, Dvorak and Khachaturian Violin Concertos. LISTEN TO THE CLASSICAL CLASSROOM SEGMENT p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}

WETA Evening Host James Jacobs speaks with world renowned violinist Rachel Barton Pine about her latest album on the Avie label, a pairing of the violin concertos of Antonín Dvořák and Aram Khachaturian, in which she collaborates with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and conductor Teddy Abrams. In this wide-ranging conversation Ms. Pine takes us through her favorite moments of both works, analyzes the ways in which both concertos are derived from the folk music of the countries of their respective composers, and reveals the joy she felt in discovering a connection between the Khachaturian and heavy metal. (She references a video she made that delves more deeply into that connection, which can be found here.) She also provides a brief history of the fraught relationship between Dvořák and Joseph Joachim, his concerto's intended dedicatee who ultimately rejected the work, and shares her thoughts on finding happiness through music.  LISTEN TO THE WETA: Wash DC INTERVIEW

Rachel Barton-Pine is one of my very favourite violinists. There are a number of reasons for this but, in essence, it is her fusion of rock-solid yet scintillating technique allied to brilliant musicianship as well as intelligent and stimulating programming. The liner mentions that she has recorded 39 discs which, by definition, covers the bulk of the core violin repertoire as well as many fascinating rarities. Previously her albums have often been an interesting juxtaposition of the familiar and the rare. Here, although the coupling is unusual, each of the two concerti are well-known.  Likewise the Royal Scottish National Orchestra are predictably fine and, with a trusty production team of Andrew Keener producing and Simon Eadon engineering, this is a handsome-sounding disc. I do not know the work of conductor Teddy Abrams and my observation here is that his interpretations are solid and secure but not especially characterful.  In the companion work on this CD - the brash and boldly coloured Khachaturian Concerto - Barton-Pine's musical personality and technical brilliance shine through. The RSNO recorded the work early in their fruitful collaboration with Neeme Jarvi for Chandos with violinist Lydia Mordkovich. It is a measure of Barton-Pine's playing that Mordkovich sounds harder worked by the Oistrakh-inspired solo part than does Barton-Pine who tosses it off with exactly the right combination of athletic bravura and sinuous sensuality.  But again, one does return to the sheer skill of Barton-Pine's playing - in the same finale she plays with cross-rhythm accenting that is a vivacious delight. Likewise her playing of the Oistrakh cadenza in the first movement is as fine as I have ever heard. The Keener/Eadon production is reliably good as is the orchestral playing. Barton-Pine's liner note (in English, French and German) is appealingly personal and also full of useful detail and information. So if the concerti themselves appeal, this is a wholly enjoyable coupling of two fine works with Rachel Barton-Pine in good form throughout. However both works exist with more individual and nuanced orchestral accompaniments. READ THE FULL MusicWeb International REVIEW

Chart-topping, international violin soloist Rachel Barton Pine, joined multi-faceted conductor Teddy Abrams and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra for a new Dvořák and Khachaturian Violin Concertos release on AVIE Records.  The album, featuring Dvořák's Violin Concerto in A minor Op. 53 and Khachaturian's Violin Concerto in D minor, highlights each composer's prominent use of his own traditional ethnic music. The recording marks Pine's 39th recording and fifth on AVIE records. Pine's previous four AVIE albums, Mozart: Complete Violin Concertos with The Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner; Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices and other works for solo violin; Testament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violinby Johann Sebastian Bach, and Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Litton all debuted on the classical charts. Central and Northern Michigan Radio: WCMU classicl host, DAVID NICHOLAS interviewed RBP recently for 'Mosaic where the Violinist spoke about the new recording.     LISTEN p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}

At Brooklyn's Ryder Elementary School, students in the Harmony Program got a front row seat to world-class violinist Rachel Barton Pine. She plays music you may have never heard, by composers like Ignatius Sancho, a self taught British slave, and Chevalier de Saint-Georges, who was once the envy of Mozart. "This music, a lot of it hasn't been published. A lot of it was published but is long out of print due to historic discrimination," Pine said. In 1995, Pine suffered severe injuries and lost part of her leg in a Chicago train accident. While she was on the road to recovery, she started researching black composers whose works were not widely known. Now, the classical music of more than 350 black composers spanning four centuries has resurfaced thanks to her determined research. "Our primary motivation behind doing this work is to inspire young African American students that classical music is part of their history and that you know they're an important part of classical music's future," Pine said. It seems to be working. Pine's initiative, Music by Black Composers, has created a music book and even a coloring book. It's inspiration composer and violinist Jessie Montgomery would have welcomed when she was younger. "Knowing about these performers and composers probably would have eliminated the question in my head. Am I odd for being black and interested in classical music?" Montgomery said. It's a question young violinists have already answered. "I want to be a composer so I can share my feelings with the world," said 9-year-old student Jayni Reid. Pine said Tchaikovsky didn't expect his music to be only "played by Russians."  "We're all supposed to play all the good music 'cause that's how we learn about each other," she said. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px} WATCH THE CBS Evening News VIDEO

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine says the concertos she's paired on her most recent recording are often overlooked, since they aren't learned and performed as frequently as Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, or Brahms. But Antonin Dvorak and Aram Khachaturian‘s concertos are great works, which were influenced by the folk traditions of their homelands. "Both of them have been part of my life since I was a teenager," Pine says. "I had learned all of the normal concertos, like Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, etc. and it was time to delve into the…I hate to say ‘B list,' because they're great quality, but you know, the ones that aren't like THE most popular, famous ones." Despite the fact that they were written in different eras (1879 and 1940), the two concertos share some features. "Their exciting rhythmic elements, their beautiful melodies, and also the beauty of the orchestration. In Dvorak's case, really lush instrumentation. Romantic sound and wonderful dialogue with the soloist. Both of these composers were very inspired by the folk music, the traditional music of their time and place. Czechoslovakian and Armenian, respectively. And so that, I thought, made them go really well together." Khachaturian's concerto especially might be unfamiliar to listeners, but Pine says it brings together a full range of emotions. "Khachaturian was awaiting the birth of his first child, and so he says he was in a state of joy and just creative flow. And it's so often we hear stories of composers being filled with angst and struggling. But yet his concerto is not just happy happy happy. It has moments of yearning, moments of tragedy, and then of course its wonderful exuberance. Khachaturian can just be very vibrant and crashing cymbals and snaky melismas in the woodwinds creating that very – to our ears – exotic sound effect." p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px} LISTEN TO THE KDFC: San Francisco - State of the Arts INTERVIEW

Rachel Barton Pine, joins conductor Teddy Abrams leading the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in a new Dvořák and Khachaturian Violin Concertos release, on AVIE records. Featuring Dvořák's Violin Concerto in A minor Op. 53 and Khachaturian's Violin Concerto in D minor, the album highlights each composer's prominent use of his own traditional ethnic music. This Dvořák and Khachaturian Violin Concertos recording marks Pine's 39th recording and fifth album on AVIE. RBP sat down with Spokane Public Radio (WA) classical host: James Tevenan to discuss the recording. Listen to the attached interview. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}

Chart-topping, international violin soloist Rachel Barton Pine, joined by multi-faceted conductor Teddy Abrams and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, has released; Dvořák and Khachaturian Violin Concertos, on AVIE records.  The album, featuring Dvořák's Violin Concerto in A minor Op. 53 and Khachaturian's Violin Concerto in D minor, highlights each composer's prominent use of his own traditional ethnic music. This Dvořák and Khachaturian Violin Concertos recording marks Pine's 39th recording and fifth album on AVIE. RBP sat down with 90.3KEDT: Corpus Christi classical host: Stewart Jacoby to discuss the recording. Listen to the attached interview.

Violin soloist Rachel Barton Pine performs Dvorak and Khachaturian concertos with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (led by Teddy Abrams) on this recording from Avie Records. Growing up with a piece of music is something very special for many instrumentalists, and that's something that violin soloist Rachel Barton Pine has done in this new recording (along with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra led by Teddy Abrams), taking on two violin concertos: Dvořák's and Khachaturian's. Classiclectic host Kurt Hauswirth had an opportunity to speak with Rachel Barton Pine about this new release from Avie Records. LISTEN TO THE PublicRadio90 - Classiclectic Connection SEGMENT p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}

Chart-topping, international violin soloist Rachel Barton Pine, joined by multi-faceted conductor Teddy Abrams and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, released Dvořák and Khachaturian Violin Concertos, on AVIE on November 1.  The album features Dvořák's Violin Concerto in A minor Op. 53 and Khachaturian's Violin Concerto in D minor, highlights each composer's prominent use of his own traditional ethnic music. The Dvořák and Khachaturian Violin Concertos marks Pine's 39th recording and fifth album on AVIE records (AV 2375).  In conjunction with the new release, RBP has made herself available for radio interviews on 2 consecutive days. Yesterday and today December 11 & 12. Watch for our tweeths throughout the day.

Chart-topping, international violin soloist Rachel Barton Pine, joined by multi-faceted conductor Teddy Abrams and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, released Dvořák and Khachaturian Violin Concertos, on AVIE on November 1.  The album features Dvořák's Violin Concerto in A minor Op. 53 and Khachaturian's Violin Concerto in D minor, highlights each composer's prominent use of his own traditional ethnic music. The Dvořák and Khachaturian Violin Concertos marks Pine's 39th recording and fifth album on AVIE records (AV 2375).  In conjunction with the new release, RBP has made herself available for radio interviews on 2 consecutive days, today and tomorrow, December 11 & 12. Watch for our tweeths throughout the day

Rachel Barton-Pine is one of the finest and most interesting performers working today.  Her unique look at the performing repertoire for her instrument continues to be one of the most salient features of her artistry.  Certainly her interpretive abilities are foremost but her choices of neglected repertoire make any release of her recordings a reason to pay close attention. In the past she has recorded many a neglected piece based on her interest in the music.  She has featured black composers from the baroque to the present and has managed to resurrect unjustly neglected concerti from composers of pretty much every racial and national description.  Here she features two lovely seldom heard concertos.  The Dvorak concerto from 1789 and the Khachaturian concerto from 1941.  Both are major works and a challenge to the soloist and both fit pretty much into the late romantic genre (arguably that would be "post romantic" for the Khachaturian). The present recording is released on the Avie label which is a progressive independent label which itself boasts an impressive selection of musical works in very fine performances.  This disc is a fine example of the work they do and is a great selection for the listener's library.  These two concertos were popular in their day but have not seen inclusion in live performances or recordings as much as other romantic concertos.  One could speculate endlessly on why this is so or one could simply celebrate the fact that we are getting to hear them in these fine and definitive recordings. All in all a great disc which is unlikely to duplicate anything in your collection but one to which you will doubtless return for sheer entertainment and joy. READ THE FULL New Music Buff REVIEW

At the beginning of this month, Avie Records released its latest album featuring violinist Rachel Barton Pine. The album is devoted to two concertos, both of which get less attention than they deserve. These are presented in chronological order, beginning with Antonín Dvořák's Opus 53 concerto in A minor, which always seems to lurk in the shadows behind the far more popular Opus 104 cello concerto in B minor. This is followed by the violin concerto composed by Aram Khachaturian, who, ironically, was born one year before the year of Dvořák's death (1904). This was actually a moderately popular concerto during my student days in Cambridge, Massachusetts; but that may have been due to the strong Armenian community in neighboring Watertown. On this album Pine performs with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, conducted by Teddy Abrams. Abrams was born in Berkeley and began studying with Michael Tilson Thomas in San Francisco at the age of twelve. He dropped out of the public school system prior to middle school but received a Bachelor's degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music at the age of eighteen, after which he studied conducting at the Curtis Institute of Music. My first listening encounter came when he conducted the annual program of music by Ludwig van Beethoven for the Summer and the Symphony San Francisco Symphony series in July of 2013. He is currently Music Director and Conductor for the Britt Music & Arts Festival Orchestra. Taken as a whole, this is a thoroughly enjoyable album, which is likely to enjoy future listening encounters while I wait for opportunities to listen to both of these concertos in concert performances! READ THE FULL REHEARSAL STUDIO REVIEW

JAMES AREY picks for NOV 23, 2019........We've been previewing some terrific new recordings for our Classical 104.9 FM music library. Some of these new CDs feature familiar material; some explore brand-new musical landscapes.  Conductor Kent Nagano leads the Montreal Symphony in a survey of American composer John Adams' iconic music from the 1980s, in 'The John Adams Album.' The violinist Rachel Barton Pine explores concertos by Khachaturian and Dvorak.    These are just a few of the new recordings we've added to our library in November. You'll be hearing these performances on the air this month!   SEE Classical104.9 New Orleans PAGE

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, joined by conductor Teddy Abrams and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, has released a new album pairing the violin concertos by Antonín Dvořák and Aram Khachaturian. Pine explains, "The thing that really connects these concertos is that both composers were really inspired by the ethnic music of their particular region of the world: Dvořák by Czech folk music from his homeland, while the Soviet-Armenian Khachaturian drew upon the harmonies, rhythms, and colorful affects of Armenian folk music and other music of the Caucasus." For November 19, Rachel Barton Pine Dvorrak - Khachaturian Violin Concertos w/RSNO - Teddy Abrams is the WFMT: Chicago 'Featured New Release' p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}

Cedille Records Announces Nine Semifinalists in Emerging Artist Competition for Chicago-Based Musicians. Liste includes:  Artemisia, vocal ensemble (28, 30, 36) Emily Birsan, soprano (34) Claire Bourg, violin (24) Maya Anjali Buchanan, violin (19) Karisa Chiu, violin (20) Johannes Gray, cello (22) Clare Longendyke, piano (32) Andrew Rosenblum, harpsichord (33) Julian Velasco, saxophone (24) In celebration of Cedille Records' upcoming 30th Anniversary and in furtherance of Cedille's mission to elevate Chicago artists, Cedille Records announces the semifinalists in its Emerging Artist Competition for Chicago area individual performers and ensembles. The winner of the competition will record and release an album on Cedille.   Timeline of competition September 16, 2018: Competition Announcement February 15, 2019: Application becomes available September 1, 2019: Submission Deadline November 1, 2019: Artist Notification May 30, 2020: Semifinals at the Spertus Institute May 31, 2020: Finals at the Spertus Institute September 2020: Winner performs at Soirée Cedille Recording sessions to take place during 2020 Fall 2021: Album release   Judges: James Ginsburg (Cedille Records founder and President) Rachel Barton Pine (violinist and Cedille recording artist) Henry Fogel (Cedille founding board member and former board chair; former President, Chicago Symphony Orchestra) Cristina Rocca (Vice President, Chicago Symphony Orchestra) George Preston (Vice President and General Manager, WFMT and former vocalist) Vladimir Kulenovic (conductor and Artistic Director, Lake Forest Symphony) David McGill (former Principal Bassoon, Chicago Symphony Orchestra) Applications were screened by a panel of Cedille Records board members. Live, open to the public semifinal and final rounds will take place over concurrent days in Chicago May 30 and 31, 2020. Semifinalists will prepare an hour of music from which judges will select 15 minutes to be performed. The final round will include up to five contestants playing 30 minutes of music total, including two contrasting works, selected by the contestants themselves. Semifinal and final performances will be adjudicated by the panel of seven judges listed above. One winner and one honorable mention will be selected. The winner will record a Cedille Records album for release in fall 2021. The winner's prize will be offered to the honorable mention if the winner is not able to record or release the album as planned. Launched in November 1989, Grammy Award-winning Cedille Records (pronounced say-DEE) is dedicated to showcasing and promoting the most noteworthy classical artists in and from the Chicago area. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px} SEE THE BroadwayWorld PAGE

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, Cedille Records' best-selling artist and longtime advocate for music by Black composers, performs a program of blues-influenced classical works for solo violin and violin and piano by Black composers of the 20th and 21st centuries on Blues Dialogues: Music by Black Composers, her newest Cedille Records album. Pianist Matthew Hagle, Pine's longtime recital partner, joins her on their third album together on Cedille and Pine's 21st for the Chicago-based label. 'Blues Dialogues' features several world-premiere recordings: Noel Da Costa's A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin, Dolores White's expanded, four-movement version of her Blues Dialogues for solo violin, and Billy Childs's Incident on Larpenteur Avenue, a single-movement violin sonata exploring the events and impact of the 2016 killing of Philando Castile by a Minnesota police officer. WCMU, Public Radio Michigan - Mosaic host David Nicholas had the chance to talk with the VERY busy violinist. Listen to the conversation

Rachel Barton Pine, is back with an album of blues-influenced classical works for solo violin and for violin and piano by 20th and 21st century composers of African descent.  World-premiere recordings include Noel Da Costa's A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin, based on American fiddle tunes, and Errollyn Wallen's Woogie Boogie, an inventive reimaging of the boogie woogie blues dance.  Another premiere is Wendall Logan's arrangement of Duke Ellington's In a Sentimental Mood.  The album's title track, Dolores White's improvisational Blues Dialogues, draws on classical, jazz, and country music, as well as African-American vocalizations.  David N. Baker's gospel-tinged Blues (Deliver My Soul) evokes the ecstatic energy of a Black church service.  Charles S. Brown's A Song Without Words was inspired by bottleneck guitar player and gospel blues master Blind Willie Johnson.  Each movement of William Grant Still's Suite for Violin and Piano evokes the work of a different African-American visual artist.  Clarence Cameron White's Levee Dance, a favorite of Jascha Heifetz, surrounds a traditional African-American spiritual with a playful, syncopated dance.  Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's Louisiana Blues Strut befits a composer with a legacy of achievements in the classical, jazz, modern dance, and pop music worlds. Listen to the attached clip with WKCR: NYC, Classical Host - Simon Cohen and Rachel Barton Pine. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px} p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}

American violinist Rachel Barton Pine's Blues Dialogues explores music of Black composers working across blues and classical traditions. Pine was a prodigy, debuting with the Chicago Symphony at age 10. Far from fish sandwiches and moonshine, she has had a celebrated career, and was the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition's youngest ever gold medal winner. But Pine is not merely pillaging the musical traditions of Black artists here; steeped in Chicago blues, she has been a decades-long champion of Black composers, and has dedicated an enormous amount of effort and time cataloguing the work of composers of colour. READ THE FULL LIMELIGHT ARTICLE

Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" amounts to a baroque legend. A series of four concerti grossi written in 1716 and 1717, it remains the best-known of the composer's works. They represented a revolution in musical conception; listeners heard flowing streams, singing birds of various species, a shepherd and his barking dog, buzzing flies, storms, drunken dancers, hunting parties, frozen landscapes and hot fires. The New Mexico Philharmonic will perform the piece with violinist Rachel Barton Pine on Saturday, April 13, in Popejoy Hall. "It's really a great masterpiece," said New Mexico Philharmonic music director Roberto Minczuk. Internationally recognized violinist Barton Pine is the soloist. "We have worked many times together in the U.S. and Canada, New Zealand and Brazil," Minczuk said. "She's one of the best violinists of her generation." READ THE FULL Albuquerque Journal ARTICLE

One day, if Rachel Barton Pine gets her wish, more children of color will see themselves on stage with a symphony, playing the music of black composers. In what has become a passion project over the past 15 years for the internationally renowned violinist and Chicago mom, Pine and her Rachel Barton Pine Foundation have collected more than 900 pieces of music by more than 350 black composers from the 18th-21st centuries. She is starting to put that music in the hands of young musicians in a multi-prong approach that also includes the first coloring book of its kind, one featuring 40 important black composers. Her hope is that music and coloring book will be the fuel for kids of color to connect with classical music in a new way and possibly open doors to music careers. Going through the music with her own daughter, Pine was convinced of the need for the project. "To see her really responding to the music itself really confirms for me, this is simply great music at a very pure level and we are all missing out by not having this great music in our lives and having these voices silenced." READ THE FULL Chicago Parent ARTICLE

One of our favorite violinists, Rachel Barton Pine, is back with an album of blues-influenced classical works for solo violin and for violin and piano by 20th and 21st century composers of African descent.  World-premiere recordings include Noel Da Costa's A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin, based on American fiddle tunes, and Errollyn Wallen's Woogie Boogie, an inventive reimaging of the boogie woogie blues dance.  Another premiere is Wendall Logan's arrangement of Duke Ellington's In a Sentimental Mood.  The album's title track, Dolores White's improvisational Blues Dialogues, draws on classical, jazz, and country music, as well as African-American vocalizations.  David N. Baker's gospel-tinged Blues (Deliver My Soul) evokes the ecstatic energy of a Black church service.  Charles S. Brown's A Song Without Words was inspired by bottleneck guitar player and gospel blues master Blind Willie Johnson.  Each movement of William Grant Still's Suite for Violin and Piano evokes the work of a different African-American visual artist.  Clarence Cameron White's Levee Dance, a favorite of Jascha Heifetz, surrounds a traditional African-American spiritual with a playful, syncopated dance.  Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's Louisiana Blues Strut befits a composer with a legacy of achievements in the classical, jazz, modern dance, and pop music worlds. Listen to the attached clip with KEDT: Corpus Christi TX, Classical Host - Stewart Jacoby and Rachel Barton Pine. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}

Rachel Barton Pine has spent almost her entire life with a violin tucked under her chin. The 43-year-old violin virtuoso first fell in love with the instrument at age 3, performed on stage with the Chicago Symphony at age 10 and today travels the world playing solo violin with some of the world's best orchestras. But besides being a fan of classical composers like Mozart and Bach, Pine is also a headbanger. Here she is playing an arrangement she prepared for Metallica's "One." She also played what you might call "metal violin" for years in the Chicago band Earthen Grave, which has since disbanded.  WATCH RBP pair Brahms and Metallica

One of our favorite violinists, Rachel Barton Pine, is back with an album of blues-influenced classical works for solo violin and for violin and piano by 20th and 21st century composers of African descent.  World-premiere recordings include Noel Da Costa's A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin, based on American fiddle tunes, and Errollyn Wallen's Woogie Boogie, an inventive reimaging of the boogie woogie blues dance.  Another premiere is Wendall Logan's arrangement of Duke Ellington's In a Sentimental Mood.  The album's title track, Dolores White's improvisational Blues Dialogues, draws on classical, jazz, and country music, as well as African-American vocalizations.  David N. Baker's gospel-tinged Blues (Deliver My Soul) evokes the ecstatic energy of a Black church service.  Charles S. Brown's A Song Without Words was inspired by bottleneck guitar player and gospel blues master Blind Willie Johnson.  Each movement of William Grant Still's Suite for Violin and Piano evokes the work of a different African-American visual artist.  Clarence Cameron White's Levee Dance, a favorite of Jascha Heifetz, surrounds a traditional African-American spiritual with a playful, syncopated dance.  Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's Louisiana Blues Strut befits a composer with a legacy of achievements in the classical, jazz, modern dance, and pop music worlds. NetNebraska, Classical Host - Genevieve Randall sat down with RBP to discuss the new recording. Listen to the attached clip p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}

Although few people can name even three black classical composers, the Chicago-based violinist Rachel Barton Pine can name 350. Pine's RBP Foundation Music by Black Composers (MBC) project has recently released four landmark initiatives celebrating these composers:  MBC Violin Volume I, the first in a series of pedagogical books of music exclusively by black classical composers; the Rachel Barton Pine Foundation Coloring Book of Black Composers; a timeline poster of over 300 black classical composers; and Pine's Blues Dialogues, an album of classical works written by 20th  and 21st-century composers of African descent, released by Cedille Records. Of the 54 composers represented among these initiatives, 22% are women. These four initiatives aim to place black classical composers and much of their previously overlooked music into today's cultural consciousness. In doing so, the RBP Foundation hopes to inspire black students to begin and continue instrumental training, make the music of black composers available to all people and help change the face of classical music and its canon. READ THE FULL Forbes ARTICLE

Rachel Barton Pine long ago established herself as a violinist willing to step outside the normal realm of the classical canon to explore a broader landscape of music. Pine's performances of metal bands such as Metallica (she actually formed a band of her own, Earthen Grave), are one example of how she embraces music that touches and challenges her. Being a native Chicagoan, Pine also feels a deep affinity for blues music, which she heard all the time growing up. Her love of blues music led to an extraordinary discovery by her in a music shop: the score for a fully-blues-infused work for violin and piano. That was the origin of "Blues Dialogues", Rachel Barton Pine's latest CD. Pine is shedding light on long-neglected works by black composers of the past and present. Music which she encourages others to take up and include in their programs. John Pitman's conversation with Pine tells more! LISTEN TO THE All Classical Portland INTERVIEW p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}

A self-described "research geek," classical violinist Rachel Barton Pine has a passion for discovering new repertoire and turning kids on to classical music. That drive and commitment fuels her Black Composers Project, now out with its first volume of violin music by Black composers for music students.  The Rachel Barton Pine Foundation was started in 2001 to increase awareness of classical music and to support young musicians from challenging financial backgrounds. Its projects include grant making, an instrument loan program, a global effort to support musicians in developing coutnries and  a project finding and collecting music by black composers from all over the world.   The Black Composers Project, now with over 900 works by more than 350 composers, is out with its first  curricular volume of violin music by black composers, with music from Africa, Europe, Latin America, North America, and the Caribbean. This curricular volume coincides with the recent release of her new album, Blues Dialogues, which reflects just one aspect of the rich treasure trove of music she's collected.   RBP talked with WRTI: Philadelphia - Susan Lewis. READ THE Q&A PHOTO: LISA-MARIE MAZZUCCO

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, Cedille Records' best-selling artist and longtime advocate for music by Black composers, performs a program of blues-influenced classical works for solo violin and violin and piano by Black composers of the 20th and 21st centuries on Blues Dialogues: Music by Black Composers, her newest Cedille Records album. Pianist Matthew Hagle, Pine's longtime recital partner, joins her on their third album together on Cedille and Pine's 21st for the Chicago-based label. 'Blues Dialogues' features several world-premiere recordings: Noel Da Costa's A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin, Dolores White's expanded, four-movement version of her Blues Dialogues for solo violin, and Billy Childs's Incident on Larpenteur Avenue, a single-movement violin sonata exploring the events and impact of the 2016 killing of Philando Castile by a Minnesota police officer. FM91WGTE: Toledo - Classical Conversations host; Brad Cresswell, sat down with RBP.       
LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}

Rachel Barton Pine is much more than a fine violinist. She has some concerns about the future of classical music in American society, and she's doing something about it. On this episode of Performance Today, Rachel Barton Pine joins us in the studio and tells us about the next big phase of her career. Hour One includes;  David Baker : Blues (Deliver My Soul) Rachel Barton Pine, violin; Matthew Hagle, piano Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio, St. Paul, MN Billy Childs : Incident on Larpenteur Avenue Rachel Barton Pine, violin; Matthew Hagle, piano Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio, St. Paul, MN Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson : Louisiana Strut Rachel Barton Pine, violin; Matthew Hagle, piano Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio, St. Paul, MN Chinquinha Gonzaga : Balada Rachel Barton Pine, violin; Silvia Pine, violin Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio, St. Paul, MN William Grant Still : Suite for Violin and Piano Movement 1 African Dancer Rachel Barton Pine, violin; Matthew Hagle, piano Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio, St. Paul, MN   Hour 2 includes; Ludwig van Beethoven : Violin Sonata No. 3 Op. 12 No. 3: Movement 3 Rondo Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin; Lambert Orkis, piano   p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px} LISTEN TO THE Performance Today SEGMENT    

Trained as a classical violinist, Rachel Barton Pine grew up listening to the blues, and one day was thrilled to discover the two genres combined in the sheet music for David Baker's Deliver My Soul - a 12-bar blues in a classical work for violin and piano. She made it the first track of her recent album, Blues Dialogues-an album of blues-influenced classical works by 20th- and 21st-century black composers. Blues Dialogues is just the latest contribution to a project started almost serendipitously over 20 years ago, after Rachel Barton Pine released an 1997 album of violin concertos by Black composers of the 18th and 19th centuries. The album sparked so much interest, and so many inquiries from teachers, parents and students about where to find repertoire like this, Rachel started her Black Composers Project, which has now collected over 900 works by more than 350 black composers. Her new album, Blues Dialogues, with Matthew Hagle on piano, reflects just one aspect of the rich treasure trove of music she's collected. RBP talked with WRTI: PHILADELPHIA Susan Lewis about the album and how it fits into the larger soundscape.  LISTEN

One of our favorite violinists, Rachel Barton Pine, is back with an album of blues-influenced classical works for solo violin and for violin and piano by 20th and 21st century composers of African descent.  World-premiere recordings include Noel Da Costa's A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin, based on American fiddle tunes, and Errollyn Wallen's Woogie Boogie, an inventive reimaging of the boogie woogie blues dance.  Another premiere is Wendall Logan's arrangement of Duke Ellington's In a Sentimental Mood.  The album's title track, Dolores White's improvisational Blues Dialogues, draws on classical, jazz, and country music, as well as African-American vocalizations.  David N. Baker's gospel-tinged Blues (Deliver My Soul) evokes the ecstatic energy of a Black church service.  Charles S. Brown's A Song Without Words was inspired by bottleneck guitar player and gospel blues master Blind Willie Johnson.  Each movement of William Grant Still's Suite for Violin and Piano evokes the work of a different African-American visual artist.  Clarence Cameron White's Levee Dance, a favorite of Jascha Heifetz, surrounds a traditional African-American spiritual with a playful, syncopated dance.  Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's Louisiana Blues Strut befits a composer with a legacy of achievements in the classical, jazz, modern dance, and pop music worlds. SEE WCLV: Cleveland 'Recording of the Week' PAGE

Violinist (and veteran Classical Classroom guest) Rachel Barton Pine talks all about her Music by Black Composers initiative, a project that's been in the works for 15 years, and the companion album she recently released called Blues Dialogues, Vol. 1. She discusses why projects like this are important, especially in the classical music world, advocacy vs. cultural appropriation, and talks about the great music on the album. LISTEN TO THE episode p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px} p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}

In 1997, violinist Rachel Barton Pine presented her landmark album, Violin Concertos by Black Composers of the 18th & 19th Centuries, on the Cedille Records label. Released 21 years later, Blues Dialogues is the most recent culmination of Pine's ongoing research into music by Black composers. Going beyond the confines of Western classical music, her new project features twelve works that draw upon the African American experience and more specifically, blues idioms, which the violinist claims is her "second-favorite genre of music." This is certainly a fitting sentiment for a Chicago native, especially one who has polished her blues chops by jamming with two local legends-Son Seals and Sugar Blue. Blues Dialogues plumbs the depths of the African American experience, as well as the depth and breadth of Rachel Barton Pine's virtuosity and interpretive abilities. Now in her prime, Pine has matured into an artist capable of the most subtle nuances and dazzling technical displays, which she demonstrates on every single track of this captivating album. A member of the Chicago Music Association (originally founded as a branch of the National Association of Negro Musicians), Pine established the Music by Black Composers Project in 2001 and has since collected more than 900 works by 350 composers spanning four centuries. Through her RPG Foundation, she offers curriculum materials for aspiring young musicians, both spreading awareness and offering access to music by Black composers. Additional information on these pedagogical materials can be found on the MBC website. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px} READ THE FULL Black Grooves REVIEW

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, Cedille Records' best-selling artist and longtime advocate for music by Black composers, performs a program of blues-influenced classical works for solo violin and violin and piano by Black composers of the 20th and 21st centuries on Blues Dialogues: Music by Black Composers, her newest Cedille Records album. Pianist Matthew Hagle, Pine's longtime recital partner, joins her on their third album together on Cedille and Pine's 21st for the Chicago-based label. 'Blues Dialogues' features several world-premiere recordings: Noel Da Costa's A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin, Dolores White's expanded, four-movement version of her Blues Dialogues for solo violin, and Billy Childs's Incident on Larpenteur Avenue, a single-movement violin sonata exploring the events and impact of the 2016 killing of Philando Castile by a Minnesota police officer. RBP sat down with Erika Funke from PA's WVIA Public Media to discuss the recording. Listen to the attached interview. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}

What a fascinating, beautiful disc. Rachel Barton Pine has borrowed the name from the four Blues Dialogues for unaccompanied violin by Dolores White. Around them, she's drawn on a two-decade fascination with music by black composers to assemble a remarkably varied and rewarding recital linked by the unifying idea of the Blues. And if that idea initially suggests a formula – or (gulp!) crossover – that impression is quickly dispelled. READ THE FULL GRAMOPHONE REVIEW

Rachel Barton Pine-in this release with pianist Matthew Hale, who joins her in some of the pieces-once again shows off her versatility and wide-ranging interest as a musician in 'Blues Dialogues: Music by Black Composers'. And while "the blues" are the omnipresent thread that links this recording by black composers, the corpus isn't a unified at all stylistically. These are mostly newly-written pieces, not arrangements of familiar tunes. In the opening track by David Baker, Blues (Deliver my soul), a piece for violin and piano, might be as easy an opening as we might expect. There's no question about its origin as a "blues piece," and one that might be easily imagined with both violinist and pianist smiling as it opens and when it closes. READ Sebastian Herrera's FULL PIECE IN Audiophile Audition

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} Billboard chart-topping Rachel Barton Pine debuted Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos, recorded with Maestro Andrew Litton and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The album which marked the violinist's 36th recording and fourth album on Avie records, dedicates the recording to "the memory of a musical hero and generous friend, Sir Neville Marriner." After collaborating with Sir Neville on her album of Mozart Concertos, Pine and Sir Neville planned to reunite on this Elgar Bruch recording. After working with Pine, Sir Neville said, "She is one of the most honest of violin players I have ever heard... there is no utter embellishment, everything is there for a purpose, and musically speaking, it makes such good sense." On this edition of CLASSICAL CLASSROOM, RBP talks about the two composers and their very different violin concertos. Discussed herein: Did Edward Elgar invent Post It Notes? How is Max Bruch like Milli Vanilli and Iron Maiden? Who was the mystery woman to whom Elgar dedicated his violin concerto (hint: it wasn't his wife!)? And so much more. LISTEN TO THE CLASSICAL CLASSROOM SEGMENT

Growing up in Chicago, Rachel Barton Pine took it for granted that there was a great body of classical music by black composers. She heard it on the radio. She played it in local orchestras as a student. The Center for Black Music Research is in Chicago. So, when the violinist recorded her first concerto album in 1997, she naturally included music by Afro-Caribbean and Afro-European composers. "I wasn't thinking about any of the social justice aspect or anything like that," Pine says. "But after the record came out, I started getting a huge number of requests from students and parents and teachers about, you know, 'Where can I find repertoire like this for kids of different levels?' " Another of the composers featured on that album is Billy Childs - a Grammy-winning Los Angeles-based composer and pianist. Childs got a cold dose of how the classical establishment felt about composers of color when he went to the University of Southern California to study classical composition, with a side of jazz performance. "It seemed as though, often, I wouldn't be taken as seriously as a composer steeped in the European tradition of music because of my jazz background," Childs says. "but that also had kind of a racial overtone to it." p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px} READ & LISTEN TO THE NPR: All Things Considered SEGMENT

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, Cedille Records' best-selling artist and longtime advocate for music by Black composers, performs a program of blues-influenced classical works for solo violin and violin and piano by Black composers of the 20th and 21st centuries on Blues Dialogues: Music by Black Composers, her newest Cedille Records album. Pianist Matthew Hagle, Pine's longtime recital partner, joins her on their third album together on Cedille and Pine's 21st for the Chicago-based label. 'Blues Dialogues' features several world-premiere recordings: Noel Da Costa's A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin, Dolores White's expanded, four-movement version of her Blues Dialogues for solo violin, and Billy Childs's Incident on Larpenteur Avenue, a single-movement violin sonata exploring the events and impact of the 2016 killing of Philando Castile by a Minnesota police officer. RBP sat down with James tevenan from Spokane Public Radio to discuss the recording. Listen to the attached interview.

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, Cedille Records' best-selling artist and longtime advocate for music by Black composers, performs a program of blues-influenced classical works for solo violin and violin and piano by Black composers of the 20th and 21st centuries on Blues Dialogues: Music by Black Composers, her newest Cedille Records album. Pianist Matthew Hagle, Pine's longtime recital partner, joins her on their third album together on Cedille and Pine's 21st for the Chicago-based label. 'Blues Dialogues' features several world-premiere recordings: Noel Da Costa's A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin, Dolores White's expanded, four-movement version of her Blues Dialogues for solo violin, and Billy Childs's Incident on Larpenteur Avenue, a single-movement violin sonata exploring the events and impact of the 2016 killing of Philando Castile by a Minnesota police officer. RBP sat down with Brent Stevens from 95.5KHFM - Albuquerque to discuss the recording. Listen to the attached interview

Our hosts listen to a lot of music so, as you can imagine, we often turn to some of our favorite recordings at gift-giving time. Jennifer Hambrick recommends: Rachel Barton Pine's Blue Dialogues: Music By Black Composers Through her Music by Black Composers project, Rachel Barton Pine continues to champion unjustly neglected music by black composers. Pine's unfailing technique shines throughout her most recent recording, Blues Dialogues, along with her instinct for swing and for the slip-sliding language of the blues. Notable is Pine's haunting performance of Billy Childs' "Incident on Larpenteur Avenue," a work commissioned specially for this recording. The soulful lyricism of the recording's final work, Charles S. Brown's "A Song Without Words," is a moving conclusion to a recording that rightly reverences blues as one of the world's artistic treasures. CLICK HERE AND SEE what all of our hosts are recommending this year for the music lover on your list.

One of our new favorite albums in the WGUC music library this fall has been Rachel Barton Pine's Blues Dialogues. It offers something so fresh, so interesting, so fun. We often get caught up with the "greats" in classical music – Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms – but fail to remember that there were countless others composing around them who have essentially slipped through the cracks of time. Rachel Barton Pine has committed the last 15 years of her life to researching music by black composers. Blues Dialogues explores just a sampling of this repertoire. WGUC had the pleasure of chatting with Rachel about this CD project. She told us the scoop on how the album came to be. Listen to the 90.9WGUC Cincinnati conversation with Rachel Barton Pine p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine plays blues-infused works by Black composers on her new album "Blues Dialogues." Rachel is a long-time advocate for music by Black composers and one of the initiatives of her well-established foundation is to promote their music. This recording features several world-premiere recordings, including Noel Da Costa's "A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin," Delores White's "Blue Dialogues" for solo violin, and Billy Child's "Incident on Larpenteur Avenue." Other highlights include the first recordings of Wendell Logan's violin and piano arrangement of Duke Ellington's "In a Sentimental Mood," Daniel Bernard Roumain's "Filter for Unaccompanied Violin," and the violin version of Charles S. Brown's "A Song Without Words." "Pine's passions for the blues, discovering interesting new repertoire, and championing the music of unjustly neglected Black composers converge on Blue Dialogues." WCVE: Richmond VA - Classical Music and Breakfast Classics host; Mike Goldberg recently spoke with RBP about this project, which features longtime recital partner, pianist Matthew Hagle.  LISTEN   p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, Cedille Records' best-selling artist and longtime advocate for music by Black composers, performs a program of blues-influenced classical works for solo violin and violin and piano by Black composers of the 20th and 21st centuries on Blues Dialogues: Music by Black Composers, her newest Cedille Records album. Pianist Matthew Hagle, Pine's longtime recital partner, joins her on their third album together on Cedille and Pine's 21st for the Chicago-based label. 'Blues Dialogues' features several world-premiere recordings: Noel Da Costa's A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin, Dolores White's expanded, four-movement version of her Blues Dialogues for solo violin, and Billy Childs's Incident on Larpenteur Avenue, a single-movement violin sonata exploring the events and impact of the 2016 killing of Philando Castile by a Minnesota police officer. RBP sat down with 90.3KEDT: Corpus Christi TX to discuss the recording. 

For the top classical recordings of the year, Chicago Tribune - Contact Reporter, Howard Reich conversed with John von Rhein, who retired as the newspaper's classical music critic in July. What follows are five picks from each of them, with comments: Rachel Barton Pine: "Blues Dialogues" (Cedille). The definition of classical music keeps expanding, thanks to new generations of musicians uninterested in the strictures of old. Chicago violinist Pine underscores the point with "Blues Dialogues," a revelatory recording bringing welcome exposure to music of black composers. Most of this repertoire may be unfamiliar to many listeners, with works by David Baker, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, William Grant Still and others rarely performed by a soloist of Pine's gifts and stature. In her hands, this music takes on new luminosity, her sensitive readings accompanied by pianist Matthew Hagle. Igor Levit: "Life" (Sony Classical). Even if you didn't know that this double album represents pianist Levit's response to – and contemplation of – the death of a close friend, it would be impossible not to be moved by the solemnity of his performances of large-scaled solo works by Busoni, Bach/Brahms, Schumann, Liszt and Rzewski. When taking on virtuosic passages, Levit conveys a degree of gravitas not often encountered in such fare. That he concludes with jazz pianist Bill Evans' "Peace Piece" tells you a great deal about the breadth of Levit's interests and the hopeful outcomes of this journey. Yo-Yo Ma: "Six Evolutions: Bach Cello Suites" (Sony Classical). The singular cellist takes on a landmark of the solo repertory for his third and what he asserts in the liner notes "will be my last recording of the suites." That remains to be seen, but, regardless, the tonal depth, intellectual clarity and emotional directness of this version radiate from every track. Music scholar Nicolas Slonimsky called Bach the "supreme arbiter and lawgiver of music." In this recording we hear those laws articulated – passionately, by Ma. Lang: "Writing on Water" (Canteloupe Music). "The album gathers four compelling instrumental pieces by American composer David Lang, cofounder of the new music collective Bang on a Can," says von Rhein. "The title track (concept and libretto by film director Peter Greenaway) has the male vocal trio Synergy Vocals and the London Sinfonietta frisking through postminimalist ‘water music' inspired by Shakespeare, Coleridge and Melville. The pulsing, burbling companion pieces – ‘Forced March,' ‘Increase' and ‘Pierced' – add to the pleasures, as do razor-sharp readings by Alarm Will Sound and the other ensembles. READ THE FULL Chicago Tribune ARTICLE

Here's cause for thanksgiving. The Chicago violinist Rachel Barton Pine has filled an album with music by Black American composers, most of them shamefully little-known. Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, for instance, no relation to the British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, but named after him at birth. C-T's set of blues for solo violin strikes me as having a dual purpose of being truly enjoyable for the listener and perfect warm-up riffs for the player if Bach is too cold to start with on a winter's morning. READ THE FULL Ludig van Toronto ARTICLE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}

Several years ago, Rachel Barton Pine issued a collection of classical concertos by black composers. Here, as part of her ongoing Black Composers Project, she completes the second volume in what is an interesting series. This time the focus is on the blues, a genre which has its obvious origin in black music, though the form itself has long bled into other cultural communities too. And interestingly enough, several of the pieces on this disc are so lightly connected to the blues that their composers can be said to use them only as a reference point. This is just a sampling of what you will find on this amazing disc. Barton Pine and partner Matthew Hagle are to be commended for such a thoughtful, gracious, and inspiring program, recorded in Cedille's typical robust and clear sound. READ THE FULL AUDIOPHILE AUDITION REVIEW p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}

Do you know of a piece by a Black composer that my child could learn? Or that I could play for my recital? Or that my beginning student could learn? These are the types of questions that violinist Rachel Barton Pine started receiving after recording Violin Concertos by Black Composers of the 18th & 19th Centuries back in 1997. She could see that her album was helping unlock a new level of interest in violin music written by Black composers, but at the time, she did not have a lot of answers. "I just didn't know yet what existed," Pine said, "this was the extent of my repertoire, these four pieces on the CD." Now, after a major 15-year effort involving the talents, input and research of many experts on the subject, Pine has compiled and confirmed a list of 350 Black composers, as well as more than 900 works by those composers. She also has an answer for students who wish to learn music by Black composers: Music By Black Composers, Violin Volume I, a book of sheet music that was just released this fall. The book, meant for students at a Suzuki Book 1-2 playing level, is the first in a violin series expected to include eight volumes, going from from beginner to advanced concerto playing level. Volume 1 includes 22 works for violin by 16 Black composers, each with accompaniment, with both a second violin duet part and piano accompaniment. Audio and video recordings are available on the Music by Black Composers website (click here) for every work in the book. The works span the years 1767 through 2014, with Black composers from the United States, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Ghana, Nigeria, Switzerland, France, and England. READ THE FULL Violinist.com ARTICLE

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, Cedille Records' best-selling artist and longtime advocate for music by Black composers, performs a program of blues-influenced classical works for solo violin and violin and piano by Black composers of the 20th and 21st centuries on Blues Dialogues: Music by Black Composers, her newest Cedille Records album. Pianist Matthew Hagle, Pine's longtime recital partner, joins on this her third album on the Chicago-based Cedille label. Blues Dialogues: Music by Black Composers, available October 19, 2018,features several world-premiere recordings: Noel Da Costa's A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin, Dolores White's expanded, four-movement version of her Blues Dialogues for solo violin, and Billy Childs'sIncident on Larpenteur Avenue, a single-movement violin sonata exploring the events and impact of the 2016 killing of Philando Castile by a Minnesota police office. In conjunction with this release, Pine has made herself available for radio interviews. In today's installment, RBP speaks with SiriusXM, PA's WVIA, Virginia's WCVE and Alabama Public Radio. Watch for our tweets

Classical and blues, followed closey by heavy metal, are violinist Rachel Barton Pine's favorite forms of music. In Blues Dialogues she takes on black composers who intertwine the two distinct styles with concert music she can perform. "The blues was just in the air," violinist Rachel Barton Pine exclaims of growing up in Chicago. She remebers her parents frequenting blues clubs and listening to records with them. "When I was a teenager I used to sneak into blues bars to listen to bands."  The project, which features 11 composers ranging from William Grant Still to Dolores White, is a part of her Music by Black Composers initative to bring underepresented voices into the spotlight. The ambitious project includes a database of living black composers and a coloring book of 40 black classical composers. In 15 years she's collected more than 900 works representing music from across the globe spanning the 18th through 21st centuries. Listen to the full interview with Katy Henriksen in conversation with violinist Rachel Barton Pine

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine explores two of her longtime interests in her latest album, Blues Dialogues… shining a spotlight on underrepresented black composers, and (as a native Chicagoan) the Blues. It continues a project that she's been working on for 15 years or so, compiling a database and resource guide for players to learn more about the composers, and shows how many tinged their contemporary compositions with the language or feel of the Blues. If you sign up for KDFC's eNotes weekly newsletter (look in the orange box in the right-hand margin of this page) you'll get a free download of a track from the disc this week. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} READ THE FULL KDFC: San Francisco ARTICLE & LISTEN TO THE SEGMENT

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, a longtime advocate for music by black composers, performs a program of blues-influenced classical works for solo violin and violin and piano by black composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Pianist Matthew Hagle, Pine's frequent recital partner, joins her on Blues Dialogues, their third album together on the Chicago-based label Cedille. World-premiere recordings include Noel Da Costa's A Set of Dance Tunes, based on American fiddle tunes, and Billy Childs's Incident on Larpenteur Avenue, a single-movement violin sonata/tone poem written as a response to a fatal shooting by police. Another premiere is Wendell Logan's violin and piano arrangement of Duke Ellington's 1935 composition, In a Sentimental Mood. Rachel Barton Pine - Blues Dialogues is the WFMT: Chicago 'Featured New Release'

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine has always had an interest in looking beyond the classical canon. In addition to the acclaim she has won for her interpretations of music by well-known composers like Bach, Handel, and Paganini, Pine has also sought to include underrepresented composers in her repertoire. A native Chicagoan, Pine grew up looking for new and exciting pieces to play at her favorite sheet music shop, Performers Music. She gravitated to pieces inspired by the blues and jazz, and her passion for this music eventually led to an important undertaking: the founding of the Music by Black Composers Project. With its social media hashtag "#expandthecanon," the project aims to show young Black artists and audience members that "they are part of classical music's past, and that this is not somebody else's music." READ THE FULL WFMT: Chicago ARTICLE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}

In this period of transition and re-assessment about race, culture, and gender in our social and political worlds, it is  critical to have a genuine appreciation for the nuanced complexity of the diverse currents in the artistic world as well. As the heading above my reviews indicates ("Jazz/Not Jazz"), I espouse the view that genre classification limits our understanding and appreciation of the peripatetic nature of  human experience. Rachel Barton Pine is a renowned classical violinist. She also plays covers of Metallica. She is a middle-aged white woman. Stop. Think about the picture in your head. Discard it. She is a  authentic musician dedicated to craft and to the exposition of the human condition. As a person who gives to the world, she is and for quite a while has been, a resolute champion of the under appreciated contributions of black composers. The Rachel Barton Pine Foundation devotes time and energy to research on their contributions. It also supports,in various ways, young musicians around the world. This is an essential document for our times. READ THE FULL KUCI: Irvine CA ARTICLE

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, Cedille Records' best-selling artist and longtime advocate for music by Black composers, performs a program of blues-influenced classical works for solo violin and violin and piano by Black composers of the 20th and 21st centuries on Blues Dialogues: Music by Black Composers, her newest Cedille Records album. Pianist Matthew Hagle, Pine's longtime recital partner, joins her on their third album together on Cedille and Pine's 21st for the Chicago-based label. 'Blues Dialogues' features several world-premiere recordings: Noel Da Costa's A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin, Dolores White's expanded, four-movement version of her Blues Dialogues for solo violin, and Billy Childs's Incident on Larpenteur Avenue, a single-movement violin sonata exploring the events and impact of the 2016 killing of Philando Castile by a Minnesota police officer. Rachel Barton Pine - Blues Dialogues is WUOL: Louisville 'Featured Album.' SEE THE PAGE

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, Cedille Records' best-selling artist and longtime advocate for music by Black composers, performs a program of blues-influenced classical works for solo violin and violin and piano by Black composers of the 20th and 21st centuries on Blues Dialogues: Music by Black Composers, her newest Cedille Records album. Pianist Matthew Hagle, Pine's longtime recital partner, joins her on their third album together on Cedille and Pine's 21st for the Chicago-based label. 'Blues Dialogues' features several world-premiere recordings: Noel Da Costa's A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin, Dolores White's expanded, four-movement version of her Blues Dialogues for solo violin, and Billy Childs's Incident on Larpenteur Avenue, a single-movement violin sonata exploring the events and impact of the 2016 killing of Philando Castile by a Minnesota police officer. In conjunction with this new release, today - Nov. 7, 2018, RBP has made herself available to Classical Radio Stations throughout the US. Watch for our tweets.

On Sunday, November 18 at 4 pm, sought-after violinist Rachel Barton Pine takes the stage at Richardson Auditorium to perform Niccoló Paganini's fiendish Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 6 with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Rossen Milanov. Bookending the violin concerto are Leos Janácek's Sinfonietta and Igor Stravinsky's Divertimento from The Fairy's Kiss. Maestro Milanov hosts Ms. Pine at a pre-concert discussion of the program at 3pm. A leading interpreter of the great classical masterworks, violinist Rachel Barton Pine thrills audiences with her dazzling technique, lustrous tone, and emotional honesty. With an infectious joy in music-making and a passion for connecting historical research to performance, Ms. Pine transforms audiences' experiences of classical music. Her 2018-19 season includes concerts with the Columbus and Phoenix Symphony Orchestras, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne, and the Tel Aviv Soloists. She has appeared as soloist with many of the world's most prestigious ensembles, including the Chicago and Vienna Symphonies, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, and Camerata Salzburg. She performs on the "ex-Bazzini ex-Soldat" Joseph Guarnerius del Gesu (Cremona 1742). No stranger to Paganini, Ms. Pine won honors for her interpretation of the Paganini Caprices at the Szigeti International Violin Competition (Budapest, 1992) and the Paganini International Violin Competition (Genoa, 1993). She regularly performs single-evening performances of all 24 Paganini Caprices worldwide, including appearances at the National Gallery of Art and Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., and at the Ravinia Festival. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} READ THE FULL BroadwayWorld ARTICLE

I was lucky enough to see violinist Rachel Barton Pine in Los Angeles twice last year with both the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Pasadena Symphony, performing Mozart and Vivaldi. Adroit, sophisticated, vigorous, sensitive and profound only begin to scratch the surface of definitions regarding her multi-faceted playing. Not only is she a master of a variety of styles - from Baroque to Modern - but Pine is also an inspirational coach, a composer, and a champion of new, newfangled and neglected music. Now at 44, she is releasing her 37th (!) disc, the 22nd on Çedille (say-DEE) Records, the label based in Pine's hometown of Chicago, where she was exposed to the Blues early on. Her latest album is an extraordinarily fascinating collection of violin sonata music by black composers, much of it solo, and some with piano accompaniment by Matthew Hingle. If political correctness has you cringing at the word "black," know that not all of the composers are African-American; some of the writers - although inspired by this traditionally American art form - are from outside the U.S.A. Regardless of the composers' birthplaces, there's an enormous variety of sounds, but they're - as promised - all Blues Dialogues. READ THE FULL STAGEANDCINEMA REVIEW p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060}

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, called "striking and charasmatic" with "bravura technique and soulful musicianship" ("The New York Times") has recorded violin concertos by Elgar and Bruch on one CD with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. It's our WRTI: Philadelphia pick for classical album of the week. They were written 40 years apart in different countries. Bruch's first violin concerto is short; Elgar's concerto is one of the longest of the genre. And yet, Rachel Barton Pine felt they belonged together. "They are both very personal, very human works," she says. "They are passionate; they are intimate. And the kind of sound you want to get out of the violin is very similar." Her 2018 recording of these two works is dedicated to the memory of conductor Sir Neville Marriner, with whom she had planned to reunite on this recording, but who died shortly before it was made. His teacher, Billy Reed, had collaborated closely with Elgar in the composition of this concerto, and Rachel Barton Pine shares some of the stories about its creation with WRTI's Susan Lewis. She also talks about how she uses the Bruch concerto to introduce newcomers to classical music. Listen to Rachel Barton Pine talk with WRTI's Susan Lewis about why she chose to record Bruch and Elgar together, why she finds the Bruch to be a great piece to introduce newcomers to classical music, and the story behind the Elgar concerto.

Max Bruch's first violin concerto, composed in 1866, has the right mix of passion and intimacy to engage classical music newcomers in the 21st century. So says Soloist Rachel Barton Pine, who learned it when she was very young and continues to love it today.  You can hear Bruch's First Violin Concerto on WRTI, Sunday, October 28 at 1 pm, when soloist Joshua Bell joins The Philadelphia Orchestra in a concert of music recorded at Saratoga Springs Performing Arts Center. Bruch, who wrote his first violin concerto in 1866, probably never thought of it as child's play. But since she was very young, violinist Rachel Barton Pine has loved the concerto, which she learned when she was 8 years old.  "The Bruch or Mendelssohn is typically the first romantic, ‘grown-up concerto' you're given. For me. it was the Bruch. " READ THE FULL WRTI: Philadelphia ARTICLE & LISTEN TO THE SEGMENT

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine plays a duet with the cutest partner ever: her 7-year-old daughter, Sylvia! Watch now as they perform a duet from the book Balada, by Brazilian composer Chiquinha Gonzaga, for Performance Today in our studios. Also check out New Classical Tracks as Pine talks about her connection to the blues and shares some extraordinary music by black composers featured on her latest album, Blues Dialogues. Enter the giveaway for a chance to win the CD! And on Performance Today, Pine shares her concerns about the future of classical music in American society and what she's doing about it.  PHOTO: Seiji Cataldo READ/WATCH ClassicalMPR ARTICLE

20 years ago, Rachel Barton Pine released a recording of violin concertos from the time of Mozart and Brahms. It featured Afro-European and Afro-Carribean composers. "After my album came out, I started getting inundated with requests by students, parents and teachers, saying, 'Hey, my kid is in Suzuki Book Six. I really want them to learn a piece by a black composer. Where can I find one?' Finally, I realized, 'Well, I've got a foundation, and there's this project that needs to happen and I love music research and music education anyway, so I might as well go for it!'" Her foundation has been researching music by black composers for the past 15 years. They've gathered more than 900 pieces from 350 different composers spanning more than four centuries. They've just released their first volume of curriculum for beginning violinists. Rachel says her new recording, Blues Dialogues, fits in beautifully with this entire project. "Basically, this CD is a lot of pieces that I've known and loved and performed often over many years - just because I love the music, not because of the background of the composer, per se. I have been wanting to make this album. But I timed it this way because I knew that the curriculum volume was about to be released along with our coloring book of black composers and our timeline poster of black composers and everything that my foundation has been working on." p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px} span.Apple-tab-span {white-space:pre} LISTEN & READ THE Q&A

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, Cedille Records' best-selling artist and longtime music advocate - releases; Blues Dialogues: Music by Black Composers. Performing a program of post 20th century solo violin, and violin/piano works, Pine is joined by longtime recital partner - Pianist Matthew Hagle for the pairs third album together and Pine's 21st for Chicago-based Cedille label. The album features several world-premiere recordings including: Noel Da Costa's A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin, Dolores White's expanded, four-movement version of Blues Dialogues for solo violin, and Billy Childs's Incident on Larpenteur Avenue, a single-movement violin sonata exploring the events and impact of the 2016 killing of Philando Castile by a Minnesota police officer. Other landmarks include the first recordings of Wendell Logan's violin and piano arrangement of Duke Ellington's In a Sentimental Mood; Daniel Bernard Roumain's Filter for Unaccompanied Violin as updated in 2018 with an opening cadenza written specially for Pine, and the violin version of Charles S. Brown's A Song Without Words. Pine had the opportunity to work directly with several of the composers on their pieces, specifically Perkinson, Dolores White, Childs, and Roumain.

A spur-of-the-moment invitation made two years ago by conductor David Commanday to superstar violinist Rachel Barton Pine, brings her back to the Heartland Festival Orchestra on Saturday Sep 15 with "Brahms Violin Concerto."  Pine mentioned her passion for the concerto in 2016 at the master class she gave for Youth Music Illinois during her last appearance with the orchestra. "Rachel's Beethoven Concerto was eloquent and powerful in ways that promised a superb interpretation of Brahms - so I replied to Rachel without hesitation: ‘It's a date - you'll be back for Brahms' " Commandy said. "I was planning on turning to Brahms' symphonies at the conclusion of our Beethoven cycle - so that's how this concert was born." READ THE FULL Peoria Journal Star ARTICLE

In both art and life, violinist Rachel Barton Pine has an extraordinary ability to connect with people. Celebrated as a leading interpreter of great classical and contemporary works, her performances combine her innate gift for emotional communication and her scholarly fascination with historical research. She plays with passion and conviction across an extensive repertoire, thrilling audiences with her dazzling technique, lustrous tone, and infectious joy in music-making. The Washington Post calls Pine; "An exciting, boundary-defying performer – Pine displays a power and confidence that puts her in the top echelon," and The New York Times writes; "Striking and charismatic…she demonstrated a bravura technique and soulful musicianship." VReacts to 3 Rachel Barton Pine masterpieces. Watch the attached clip  

Locating classical music written by living Black composers wordwide is now just a click away thanks to a new directory developed and launched by the not-for-profit Rachel Barton Pine (RBP) Foundation. The directory is designed for those seeking to commission new works; for performers, conductors, and concert programmers seeking existing music; and for other researchers and scholars of contemporary classical music. The directory is part of the RBP Foundation's Music by Black Composers (MBC) project, which aims to bring greater diversity to the ranks of classical music performers, composers, and audiences by making the music of Black composers available to everyone. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px} READ THE FULL Milwaukee Community Journal ARTICLE

Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine debuts Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos, recorded with Maestro Andrew Litton and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The album marks her 36th recording and fourth album on Avie records (AV 2375). respectively). Pine calls the Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos an "indulgence in Romanticism." This project is the first time that the shortest of the Romantic violin concertos frequently performed in concert (Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26) has been recorded with the longest (the Elgar Violin Concerto in B Minor, Op. 61). While Pine counts the Menuhin album of Bruch and Elgar as inspiration, it features two performances recorded in sessions many years apart paired together on a reissue. RBP sat down with 91.3WGTE: Toledo OH, Classical Host, Brad Cresswell to discuss the album. LISTEN

Rachel Barton Pine's new album is a synthesis of two composers whose works are imbued with a singular warmth and humanity from composers Max Bruch and Edward Elgar. "Even though they were forty years apart from different countries, they felt like they would really work on the same album," says Pine, adding that the works of Bruch are "never far from her fingers." The album's concertos include one by Bruch that has been dear to Pine since her early days as a violinist, and another by Elgar, a section of which he requested be inscribed on his tombstone. "The thing that really defines a masterpiece is you never get bored with it no matter how many times you return to it," says Pine.   PHOTO; Lisa Marie Mazzucco Listen to the full interview with KUAF: Fayetteville AR: Of Note host, Katy Henriksen p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

Rachel Barton Pine calls the Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos, recorded with Maestro Andrew Litton and the BBC Symphony, an "indulgence in Romanticism." The Avie records (AV 2375) project is the first time that the shortest of the Romantic violin concertos frequently performed in concert (Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26) has been recorded with the longest (the Elgar Violin Concerto in B Minor, Op. 61). While the Billboard chart-topping violinist counts the Menuhin album of Bruch and Elgar as inspiration, it features two performances recorded in sessions many years apart paired together on a reissue. 89.7WCPE - 'The Classical Station' in Wake Forest NC, Classical Music Host, Dan McHugh, spoke with RBP about the recording. Listen to the attached clip p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

Rachel Barton Pine calls the Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos, recorded with Maestro Andrew Litton and the BBC Symphony, an "indulgence in Romanticism." The Avie records (AV 2375) project is the first time that the shortest of the Romantic violin concertos frequently performed in concert (Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26) has been recorded with the longest (the Elgar Violin Concerto in B Minor, Op. 61). While the Billboard chart-topping violinist counts the Menuhin album of Bruch and Elgar as inspiration, it features two performances recorded in sessions many years apart paired together on a reissue. 95.5KHFM - Albuquerque Classical Music Host, Brent Stevens, spoke with RBP about the recording. Listen to the attached clip

Rachel Barton Pine's debut of Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos, recorded with Maestro Andrew Litton and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, marks her 36th recording and fourth album on Avie records (AV 2375). Pine calls the Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos an "indulgence in Romanticism." This project is the first time that the shortest of the Romantic violin concertos frequently performed in concert (Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26) has been recorded with the longest (the Elgar Violin Concerto in B Minor, Op. 61). While Pine counts the Menuhin album of Bruch and Elgar as inspiration, it features two performances recorded in sessions many years apart paired together on a reissue. University of Winnipeg Radio's John Iverson spoke with RBP about the new album for his  program. Listen to the attached conversation, or the entire March 25, 2018 show.

American violinist Rachel Barton Pine practically grew up with the Bruch Violin Concerto No.1; in her conversation with me about her new CD, Pine says that the Bruch was her first "grown up" concerto, after having learned Bach and Mozart.  Though Pine has explored the full landscape of classical repertoire for her instrument, this is her first recording of Bruch's concerto.  Less surprising, perhaps, is that this is also her first Elgar recording.  Although Elgar's monumental work is getting more play these days, it's still a piece that hovers just outside the standard repertoire.  Pine's contribution might help improve its standing even more.  She had input from Sir Neville Marriner (just a few months before his death in 2016), and Sir Neville's teacher was Billy Reed, who advised Elgar during composition.  So, Ms. Pine felt a sense of continuity that traces back to the composer.  More importantly, through her usual excellent research and immersive rehearsal, Pine has drawn out some of the personal expression that Elgar wove into his very detailed score.  Bruch and Elgar may seem like an unusual pairing, but not for Pine:  having listened to Yehudi Menuhin's recording of the works for so many years, to her it's natural. LISTEN TO All Classical Portland SEGMENT

Rachel Barton Pine was 11 when she first performed Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She has performed it many times since then, and now, 32 years later, she's recording this work for the first time. It's paired with an unlikely partner, Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto. She says it all goes back to an album that she loved growing up featuring the legendary Yehudi Menuhin, who recorded both works early in his career. In her mind, they've always been a perfect match. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px} span.Apple-tab-span {white-space:pre} "Of the standard romantic concerti, the Bruch is pretty much the shortest and the Elgar is pretty much the longest, so that always had them live together in my mind for that reason," Pine says. "But more importantly, somehow both the Bruch and Elgar are very human. They're intimate, they're passionate and there's a certain sound that I look for in each, which is very lush and rich and warm. And so even though they were written 40 years apart in different countries, I felt like somehow it worked to put them together."      PHOTO: Lisa Marie Mazzucco New Classical Tracks is a Syndicated Feature that airs Nationally on Classical 24 and Statewide via Minnesota Public Radio

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Renowned violinist Rachel Barton Pine has released her 36th album, recorded with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Andrew Litton. The new release features Romantic concertos by Sir Edward Elgar and Max Bruch. Pine dedicates this album to "the memory of a musical hero and generous friend, Sir Neville Marriner." After collaborating with Sir Neville on her album of Mozart Concertos, they planned to reunite on this recording before his passing. Andrew Litton stepped in and Pine adds, "I'm incredibly grateful to Andrew Litton for doing such an excellnt job. Our recording is faithful to 99% of what's in print, and yet the music feels inspired, it is singing through all of us." Listen to 88.9 WCVE, Richmond VA Classical Music Host - Mike Goldberg's recent discussion with Rachel about the new album.   p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}  

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} Billboard chart-topping - Rachel Barton Pine debuts Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos, recorded with Maestro Andrew Litton and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The album marks Ms. Pine's 36th recording and fourth album on Avie Records. The violinist's previous three Avie albums, Mozart: Complete Violin Concertos with The Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner; Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices and other works for solo violin; andTestament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by Johann Sebastian Bach, all debuted at the top of the Billboard Classical charts (positions 3, 3, and 1, respectively). Rachel Barton Pine Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos is the WCLV: Cleveland Recording of the Week. Rachel spoke with WCLV's Angela Mitchell about these concertos, which she says will "get your blood flowing" in these cold winter months.  LISTEN TO THE WCLV SEGMENT

Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine recently debuted the Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos, recorded with Maestro Andrew Litton and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The album marks Pine's 36th recording and fourth album on Avie records (AV 2375). Pine calls the Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos an "indulgence in Romanticism." This project is the first time that the shortest of the Romantic violin concertos frequently performed in concert (Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26) has been recorded with the longest (the Elgar Violin Concerto in B Minor, Op. 61). While Pine counts the Menuhin album of Bruch and Elgar as inspiration, it features two performances recorded in sessions many years apart paired together on a reissue. 90.5WUOL Louisville Classical Music Host - Daniel Gilliam talked with RBP about her history with each concerto, and the importance of Neville Marriner and Yehudi Menuhin in the album.   LISTEN

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} Violinist Rachel Barton Pine is known for her catholic taste in music, performing everything from the standard Romantic concertos to baroque rarities on period equipment. Her new album features the first Bruch concerto, an audience favorite, with the underperformed (and perhaps misunderstood) Elgar concerto. The BBC Symphony is led by Andrew Litton.  Kansas Public Radio, CLASSICAL HOST - Michael Keelan talked with Rachel Barton Pine. LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW

Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine debuts Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos, recorded with Maestro Andrew Litton and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The album marks her 36th recording and fourth album on Avie records (AV 2375). Pine's previous three Avie albums, Mozart: Complete Violin Concertos with The Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner; Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices and other works for solo violin; and Testament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by Johann Sebastian Bach, all debuted at the top of the Billboard Classical charts (positions 3, 3, and 1, respectively). SEE THE KDFC: San Francisco PAGE

Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine debuts Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos, recorded with Maestro Andrew Litton and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The album marks her 36th recording and fourth album on Avie records (AV 2375). Pine's previous three Avie albums, Mozart: Complete Violin Concertos with The Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner; Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices and other works for solo violin; and Testament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by Johann Sebastian Bach, all debuted at the top of the Billboard Classical charts (positions 3, 3, and 1, respectively). SEE THE KUSC: Los Angeles PAGE

Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine debuts Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos, recorded with Maestro Andrew Litton and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The album marks her 36th recording and fourth album on Avie records (AV 2375). Pine's previous three Avie albums, Mozart: Complete Violin Concertos with The Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner; Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices and other works for solo violin; andTestament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by Johann Sebastian Bach, all debuted at the top of the Billboard Classical charts (positions 3, 3, and 1, respectively). In conjunction with this recording, Ms Pine has made herself available today to speak with radio stations around the US. Participating cities include; San Francisco, Cleveland, St. Louis, Portland, Seattle, Austin, Albuquerque, Louisville, Buffalo. Watch for our tweets

Exploring the legacy of orchestral pioneers is the program slated for Saturday night's Anchorage Symphony Orchestra presentation of "Trailblazers" at the Atwood Concert Hall at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts. The careers of three performers – two deceased and one still very much alive – and their impacts on modern and past orchestral performance are set to be showcased musically through performance of their best-known compositions that when originally released rocked the classical concert world. "I hope that our audience will take away the fact that certain standard works which we now consider part of the normal classical repertoire were once scandalous and risky," Randall Craig Fleischer, ASO maestro. "The opening phrase that the soloist plays in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 is so beautiful yet we take for granted just how different that section is in terms of the traditions of the day." That is because the audience of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's day – between the 1770s and the 1790s – would have been shocked the first time they heard the violin entered the musical performance in a completely different tempo from the introduction," Fleischer said.  It will occur during Saturday night's performance as world class violinist Rachel Barton Pine carefully drags her bow across a nearly 300-year old instrument in the Violin Concerto No. 5 slated to be the second piece performed for "Trailblazers." Pine is well-known for her interpretation of concerto cadenzas, and writes her own. READ THE FULL Anchorage Press ARTICLE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra's New Music Festival takes place at various venues from Thursday to Monday (January 18 to 22), but not all of the music in this year's edition is entirely new. One whole night, the New Music for Old Instruments: After Bach collaboration with Early Music Vancouver on Friday (January 19), is devoted to contemporary compositions that reference the music of the Baroque era. Other works, such as Jocelyn Morlock's Night, herself, draw from global traditions that are even older. And at least one world premiere touches on motifs-glissandos, slides, and passages of frenetic virtuosity-that have been developed over the 50-year history of a style that might be surprising to some: heavy metal.  Evidence that classical music is moving into a more inclusive phase will be found in Marcus Goddard's Violin Concerto, which-in a significant coup for the VSO trumpeter and composer-will be premiered by American soloist Rachel Barton Pine as part of Dawn to Dusk. Pine reports that she knew she wanted to perform Goddard's music the moment she heard his string quartet Allaqi-and that if the concerto's first movement is at least in part derived from metal, it's the perfect fit for her abilities and interests. "It's not that an audience member is going to sit there and hear some kind of crossover-rock piece, 'cause that's not what it's about," says the violinist, who has already performed astute and convincing chamber-music arrangements of Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" and Metallica's "One". "But just as Bartók or Dvořák would take eastern European folk music and incorporate it into their ‘high art', in a similar way the more serious genres of heavy metal are ripe for inclusion in our language of classical music. It's really come full circle, because a lot of those subgenres have been inspired by classical all along." Pine will also join VSO concertmaster Nicholas Wright in performing Anna Clyne's Grammy Award–winning Prince of Clouds and Morlock's evergreen Cobalt as part of Cobalt Clouds and Clear Blue Seas on Saturday (January 20). What links all three pieces, she says, is that they offer accessible pleasure to the listener while also giving the performers a chance to find their own personal voice, without the pressure of playing pieces already defined by past generations of virtuosos. photo: LISA-MARIE MAZZUCCO READ THE FULL Georgia Straight ARTICLE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine has just released her 36th album. She pairs violin concertos by Max Bruch and Sir Edward Elgar. These two pieces are the shortest (the Bruch is about 20 minutes) and longest (the Elgar is about 50 minutes) of violin concertos in the standard repertoire. This is the first time an artist has put those two particular violin concertos on a single album. (Yehudi Menuin released them together on a reissue album, but the two recordings were made years apart.)  Pine dedicated the album to the late conductor Sir Neville Marriner. After a successful collaboration on a recording of the Mozart concertos, Pine and Marriner planned to record the Bruch and Elgar togther as well. Unfortunately, Marriner passed away before the recording could take place, and Andrew Litton graciously stepped in.  Rachel Barton Pine Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos is IPR: New Classical Release. SEE THE PAGE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

Rachel Barton Pine releases her first recordings of two repertory staples – violin concertos by Edward Elgar and Max Bruch. The two works – Elgar's only concerto for violin and Bruch's first – straddle the turn of the 20th century but have a common Romantic hue. The album is dedicated to "the memory of a musical hero and generous friend, Sir Neville Marriner," who was to have reunited with Pine on this album. She was fortunate to work with him on the scores, with Sir Neville vividly relating accounts of his teacher Billy Reed, former leader of the London Symphony Orchestra, who collaborated with Elgar on the creation of his violin concerto. Rachel Barton Pine Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos is WFMT: Chicago 'Featured New Release'

Welcome to "For the Record," Violinist.com's weekly roundup of new releases of recordings by violinists, violists, cellists and other classical musicians. We hope it helps you keep track of your favorite artists, as well as find some new ones to add to your listening! p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica; min-height: 13.0px} Chicago-based violinist Rachel Barton Pine's newest album features the well-known Violin Concerto No. 1 by Max Bruch, as well as Violin Concerto in B minor by Edward Elgar, written 44 years later. It is is dedicated to "the memory of a musical hero and generous friend, Sir Neville Marriner," with whom she was originally to recorded the album. Pine worked with Marriner on the scores before his death in 2016, and Marriner related to her accounts of his teacher, violinist Billy Reed. Reed was the former leader of the London Symphony Orchestra, who collaborated with Elgar on the creation of the violin concerto. The concerto was commissioned Fritz Kreisler, who premiered it in 1910. For the recording, conductor Andrew Litton conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra. While the Bruch Concerto was the first major Romantic concerto that Pine learned, the Elgar was among the last. When learning it early in her professional career, "I counted 89 highly technical spots that I had to isolate and practice separately over and over," Pine writes in the program notes. "I also can't think of any other violin concerto with Elgar's density of tempo alterations. To make sure I didn't miss them, I marked them all with a yellow highlighter, making my music look quite colorful."
PHOTO:  Lisa-Marie Mazzucco Watch Video as Pine talks about her new album, including a description of her conversations with Marriner. 

Prolific violinist Rachel Barton Pine's latest release is an exploration of the original rock star of classical music: Niccolo Paganini, a man known for his incredible skill and devil-may-care attitude. "Paganini was a larger than life figure from 200 years ago who dressed all in black, and had long hair and lots of female fans," says Pine. "People said that maybe he sold his soul for his amazing technique." Paganini has the reputation of a rockstar, but his legacy is that of a virtuoso. Pine's album focuses on Paganini's caprices and other unaccompanied works for violin, in which he showed the versatility the instrument was capable of.  "Paganini didn't actually do everything possible in the Caprices," says Pine. "He came close."    LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}   p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

Nicolo Paganini dazzled audiences in his time with his unprecedented virtuosity, made women swoon (and men envious), and helped to create the myth that he must have sold his soul for such abilities.  In truth, Paganini was a gifted creator of original melodies, as well as variations on opera arias and popular tunes of his day.  His 24 Caprices for unaccompanied violin are beloved by violinists (and somewhat intimidating, I'm sure, to students), and are often played as encores.  American violinist Rachel Barton Pine has taken it one step further:  being among the very few who perform all 24 caprices in concerts.  Having done so for many years, she's now documented her special take on these intimate, yet very flashy, solo violin miniatures. Each has a different character, and Ms. Pine says, tells a story.  Some are heroic, some are love songs, some are demonic in their use of harmonies and technique.  No. 24 in a minor is the most famous, set into variation form afterwards by many composers (most famously Rachmaninov's Variations on a Theme of Paganini, 1934).  Maybe it's Pine's particular interpretation, or maybe the rare time spent listening to nearly all of these, is that the works are highly original, and eminently appealing and entertaining.  And, they don't bore the ear.  Some might think that an entire set of pieces for unaccompanied string instrument would run out of steam, but Paganini's Caprices are each so individual of one another, that one can find something to enjoy in each (even if it's something technical rather than melodic). p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px} Ms. Pine has also included works written by Paganini based on opera melodies, and she has created an entirely new work of her own, inspired by Paganini's variation style:  a setting of New Zealand's national anthem, "God Save New Zealand".  Pine wrote it in homage to the country that had so enchanted her on a recent tour.  It makes a fitting conclusion to this 2-CD set, and helps to bring Paganini's music into the 21st century.    LISTEN TO THE SEGMENT

p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px} Rachel Barton Pine's recent release - Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices and other Works for Solo Violin is a musical tightrope of works that samples virtually all of the most challenging techniques possible on the violin. Pine's 35th album and third release on Avie records, marks the first time an American-born female violinist has recorded this repertoire. Born in northern Italy in 1782, Niccolò Paganini became one of the greatest violin virtuosos in classical music history. As WRTI: Philadelphia - Susan Lewis reports, his 24 Caprices show off his extraordinary technique-and more. LISTEN TO THE SEGMENT p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} Over the past decade, the American violinist Rachel Barton Pine has performed repeatedly in New Mexico as a concerto soloist or recitalist, but this week she makes her debut at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. On Saturday, July 22, at 5 p.m., she plays unaccompanied works by Bach (his Violin Sonatas in G minor and C major and his Partita in E major), and then at 6 p.m. on Sunday, July 23, and Monday, July 24, she will join with four colleagues - violinist Jennifer Frautschi, violist Paul Neubauer, and cellists Mark Kosower and Clive Greensmith - for Glazunov's String Quintet in A major, on programs that also include works by Schumann and Beethoven. All of these take place in St. Francis Auditorium (New Mexico Museum of Art. SEE THE Santa Fe New Mexican PAGE

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine has been on a roll in the recording studio over the past couple of years. Any one of her last three albums could be considered a major career milestone on its own. They include all of the works for violin and orchestra by W.A. Mozart, the complete sonatas and partitas for unaccompanied violin by J.S. Bach, and most recently, almost all of the music for solo violin by Niccolò Paganini, including the notorious twenty-four caprices. Her latest album is new from Avie Classics and she talked about it with KMFA: Austin TX - Rideshare host Chris Johnson last week. Produced with help from volunteer production assistant Joshua Figueroa. LISTEN

Rachel Barton Pine's recent release - Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices and other Works for Solo Violin is a musical tightrope of works that samples virtually all of the most challenging techniques possible on the violin. Pine's 35th album and third release on Avie records, marks the first time an American-born female violinist has recorded this repertoire.  Bel Canto Paganini includes all 24 Caprices, as well as Paganini's Introduction and Variations on ‘Nel cor più non mi sento from Paisiello's La molinara; Duet for One, and Caprice d'adieu. Pine marks the profound influence Paganini's compositions have had on her by concluding the album with her own Introduction, Theme and Variations on ‘God Defend New Zealand, inspired by Paganini's legacy of creating virtuosic themes and variations. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px} Pine interviewed with 91.3 KVLU: Beaumont TX Classical Host - Joe Dugan regarding the release and Niccolo Paganini. Listen to the attached segment.

Rachel Barton Pine's recent release - Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices and other Works for Solo Violin is a musical tightrope of works that samples virtually all of the most challenging techniques possible on the violin. Pine's 35th album and third release on Avie records, marks the first time an American-born female violinist has recorded this repertoire.  Bel Canto Paganini includes all 24 Caprices, as well as Paganini's Introduction and Variations on ‘Nel cor più non mi sento from Paisiello's La molinara; Duet for One, and Caprice d'adieu. Pine marks the profound influence Paganini's compositions have had on her by concluding the album with her own Introduction, Theme and Variations on ‘God Defend New Zealand, inspired by Paganini's legacy of creating virtuosic themes and variations. Pine interviewed with 89.7, WCPE: Wake Forest NC, Classical Host - Dan McHugh regarding the release and Niccolo Paganini. Listen to the attached segment.

One of the benefits for music lovers in our community is the possibility of listening to concerts that are off-shoots of the UIUC School of Music's Illinois Summer Youth Music program. As a highlight of this year's sessions, famous violinist Rachel Barton Pine came to town to hold masterclasses for young violinists in the Summer Youth Music classes. She also gave a free public recital in Smith Memorial Recital Hall on June 26. Usually, offseason concerts in Smith Hall draw small numbers, but the Hall was packed with hundreds of teenagers from the Summer Youth program this Monday night. READ THE FULL Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette REVIEW

New Classical Tracks is a Syndicated Feature airing Nationally on Classical 24 & Statewide on Minnesota Public Radio. Listen to Julie Amacher's Feature with Rachel Barton Pine. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px} READ SOME OF THE TRANSCRIPT -  "Well, I first started listening to the caprices when I was six and with an LP of Itzhak Perlman that my mom had bought for me and it was my bedtime bribe," Rachel Barton Pine recalls. "On nights when I really didn't want to settle down and go to sleep. my mom would say, 'If you'll just be a good girl and close your eyes I'll put on your Paganini record.' "And you know, by the time I was 10, I got my first Paganini Caprice assigned by my teachers and just started learning one at a time till I'd learned them all." All that marathon training paid off. Recently, Rachel Barton Pine released all of the Paganini Caprices on a new recording she calls, Bel Canto, which means "beautiful singing." As a teenager, Rachel won the Paganini Caprice Prize for her performance of the Caprice Number 5, the infamous bouncing-bow Caprice. "Just being able to play all those notes really fast with the left hand is the big challenge," Rachel says. "But in fact, that's the least of the struggles of that piece. It's all about the bow stroke which is three down bows followed by an up bow over and over again, a particular kind of ricochet.   "And actually so many of the caprices have unusual bowings &mash; you know, the backwards bow stroke in number 11 and the triple stops on down bows and up bows in number nine - the list goes on. And so I actually used a transitional bow for this recording, which is what you might call an early modern style of bow. It's Perham Bucco wood, which is what our bows are made out of today, and it's curved inwards, as opposed to the old baroque bows which are curved outwards. But it's lighter and springier and just a little clearer than the modern bows which are, you know, heftier and have more bombast and so that really allowed me to not only have a little bit easier time with some of these bow strokes - not that they're easy. But you know, it just made everything pop a little more but it also gave the tone quality more of a facility and a sweetness and delicacy at times that you know more closely matched to my conception, which is sort of paying homage to the fact that Paganini was a contemporary of the great bel canto opera composers like Rossini and Verdi and Donizetti and Bellini and so often you hear that caprices played with a later Romantic, more muscular, fiery type of sound and while there's certainly intensity, you know, Paganini comes from an earlier era and I wanted to make sure to capture more of that flavor in my interpretations." p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine loves playing challenging music and apparently, being on Classical Classroom, as this is her third time on the show. So it makes sense that she would want to play the musical equivalent of running a marathon for her latest album: Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices. In this episode, Rachel talks about who Paganini was. As it turns out, he was much more than just a classical music proto-goth with what some thought was a supernatural ability to play the violin. Music in this episode includes: Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini –  Nikolai Lugansky, Sakari Oramo City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Breaking The Rules: Pagan Annie Richard Greene, Jon Kurnick, Denny Seiwell
All other music from Bel Canto Paganini by Rachel Barton Pine

This Houston Public Media's 'Classical Classroom' segment was hosted by Dacia Clay with Audio production by Todd "Sheriff Harry S. Truman - Herbert Hoover" Hulslander  p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial}

On the latest release from Rachel Barton Pine, Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices and other Works for Solo Violin, the violinist plays all of the 24 famed Paganini Caprices, plus a few other works by the virtuoso composer. She sees them as much more than just flashy examples of what the instrument is capable of, especially after deciding to play all the repeats that Paganini indicated. "All of these years, I've been striving to treat Paganini's music with just as much respect as any other serious composer," she says. "Not to treat his Caprices as mere fireworks, just showy pieces, but really to find the musicality in each one, and what its character is. If I were recording Beethoven or Schubert, or anybody else from the early 1800s, I would pay attention to what repeats they indicated. And Paganini is very specific, sometimes he wants repeats of the first and second half, sometimes only the first half… So he obviously meant it, it wasn't just there for convention's sake." Making that decision has helped her discover hidden depths to the Caprices. "It makes you learn things about them. Certain ones are longer, the proportions between them are different, and you know, the onus is on the performer, on me, to make sure that I can sustain the interest with doing certain repeats and hearing the music again, but the music is great enough that it really does sustain that."  Pine decided one way to help be faithful to the spirit of Paganini was to think of vocal lines. "I actually coached with an Italian opera coach because Paganini's music comes from the same time as Rossini and Verdi and all of those quys. And so I wanted to make sure that it had that flavor." Listen to Pine full interview with KDFC: San Francisco - State of the Arts host, Jeffrey Freymann   

Rachel Barton Pine's recent release - Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices and other Works for Solo Violin is a musical tightrope of works that samples virtually all of the most challenging techniques possible on the violin. Pine's 35th album and third release on Avie records, marks the first time an American-born female violinist has recorded this repertoire.  Bel Canto Paganini includes all 24 Caprices, as well as Paganini's Introduction and Variations on ‘Nel cor più non mi sento from Paisiello's La molinara; Duet for One, and Caprice d'adieu. Pine marks the profound influence Paganini's compositions have had on her by concluding the album with her own Introduction, Theme and Variations on ‘God Defend New Zealand, inspired by Paganini's legacy of creating virtuosic themes and variations. Pine interviewed with Spokane Public Radio's Jim Tenevan, regarding the release and Niccolo Paganini. Listen to the attached segment

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine has a new album out which explores both the virtuosity and the lyricism of the legendary violinist/composer, Nicolò Paganini. In Bel Canto Paganini, Rachel takes on the daunting 24 caprices for solo violin, plus some rarely heard Paganini gems. Rachel even offers a composition of her own in tribute: a set of variations on the New Zealand national anthem. The Billboard chart-topping violinist joins us for a conversation about Paganini, his life, and his music. 91.3 WGTE - Toledo Classical Music host, Brad Cresswell spoke with RBP about the new recording. LISTEN p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial}

The finger-blistering virtuosity of the music of early 19th-century violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini is so astonishing that when Paganini performed it, the rumor mill creaked of Faustian bargains. Today, one violinist - Rachel Barton Pine aims to show the lyrical side of Paganini's music in a brand-new recording that moves the soul as much as it amazes the senses. "We think of (Paganini) as this virtuoso guy with all of his pyrotechnical tricks and flying fingers," violinist Rachel Barton Pine said. "But it was obviously his music that touched people's hearts and caused all those women to swoon, not just the virtuosity."  PHOTO: LISA-MARIE MAZZUCCO LISTEN TO THE Classical 101 SEGMENT p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

The KDFC: San Francisco - Download of the Week for June 12th, 2017 is Rachel Barton Pine - Bel Canto Paganini Chicago-native Rachel Barton Pine recent release of Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices and other Works for Solo Violin, is a musical tightrope of works that samples virtually all of the most challenging techniques possible on the violin.  Pine's 35th album and third release on Avie records distinguishes her as the first American-born female violinist to record this repertoire. In addition to the 24 Caprices and Other Works for Solo Violin, the disc includes Paganini's Introduction and Variations on ‘Nel cor più non mi sento from Paisiello's La molinara; Duet for One, and Caprice d'adieu. Pine describes playing the Paganini Caprices - "like playing tennis and reciting poetry at the same time."   Grab the Caprice #24 now for free!

The KDFC: San Francisco - Album of the Week for June 12th, 2017 is Rachel Barton Pine - Bel Canto Paganini Chicago-native Rachel Barton Pine recent release of Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices and other Works for Solo Violin, is a musical tightrope of works that samples virtually all of the most challenging techniques possible on the violin.  Pine's 35th album and third release on Avie records distinguishes her as the first American-born female violinist to record this repertoire. In addition to the 24 Caprices and Other Works for Solo Violin, the disc includes Paganini's Introduction and Variations on ‘Nel cor più non mi sento from Paisiello's La molinara; Duet for One, and Caprice d'adieu. Pine describes playing the Paganini Caprices - "like playing tennis and reciting poetry at the same time."

Rachel Barton Pine's Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices and other Works for Solo Violin is a musical tightrope of works that samples virtually all of the most challenging techniques possible on the violin.  Pine's 35th album, the disc on Avie Records, includes all 24 Caprices, as well as Paganini's Introduction and Variations on ‘Nel cor più non mi sento from Paisiello's La molinara; Duet for One, and Caprice d'adieu. Pine marks the profound influence Paganini's compositions have had on her by concluding the album with her own Introduction, Theme and Variations on ‘God Defend New Zealand, inspired by Paganini's legacy of creating virtuosic themes and variations. 90.9 WRCJ: Detroit, Classical Host - Chris Felcyn spoke with RBP about the recording. The segment will air on Thursday, June 15 at 3pm on The Well-Tempered Wireless. Chris commented that the interview turned out really well, including lunch and maybe a splash of Bill Evans, it's be the Fine Pine Paganini Panini Peace Piece."  Listen to the attached interview

Rachel Barton Pine's Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices and other Works for Solo Violin is a musical tightrope of works that samples virtually all of the most challenging techniques possible on the violin.  Pine's 35th album, the disc on Avie Records, includes all 24 Caprices, as well as Paganini's Introduction and Variations on ‘Nel cor più non mi sento from Paisiello's La molinara; Duet for One, and Caprice d'adieu. Pine marks the profound influence Paganini's compositions have had on her by concluding the album with her own Introduction, Theme and Variations on ‘God Defend New Zealand, inspired by Paganini's legacy of creating virtuosic themes and variations. RAF: St. Louis Classical Host - Jim Doyle spoke with RBP about the recording. Listen to the attached interview

The City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong under star guest conductor Andrew Sewell was in sumptuous form for last Friday's concert, which was noted for its variety and innovation. Similarities and disparities marked the programme, with repertoire spanning from the baroque and postmodern minimalism. A firebrand of a composer in his youth, Henry Cowell later adopted a much more conventional outlook, as in the programme-opening Hymn and Fuguing Tune No. 10, which is lushly scored for strings and oboe. Soloist Leanne Nicholls' creamy tone blended beautifully to create delicate, melancholy dissonances, albeit swamped at times by the violas. An ear-tickling six-note chord opened Vivaldi's Concerto for Viola d'amore, a long-obsolete instrument with seven gut strings, drones beneath the fingerboard adding resonance to the sound. Given soloist Rachel Barton Pine's gentle persuasion, who could fail to love the piece? Its primary significance, however, would be as a foil to the music of Vivaldi's magisterial contemporary, Johann Sebastian Bach, whose great Concerto for Violin in A minor and Concerto for Two Violins in D minor provided the meat of the recital. Virtuoso violinist Rachel Barton Pine, ahead of Hong Kong debut, on being a hard-up kid with an obsession to master the strings.  READ THE FULL South China Morning Post REVIEW p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine just released her 35th album, "Bel canto Paganini." The centerpiece of the album is the 24 caprices for solo violin by Niccolo Paganini. Pine chatted with IPR's Amanda Sewell about the new album, what 19th-century opera composers thought about Paganini's music, and why Pine's young daughter is one of the only people who gets to hear her sing. Hear the entire conversation in the clip below. RBP spoke with Interlochen Public Radio MD - Amanda Sewell.  LISTEN TO THE SEGMENT

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine traverses Paganini's ground-breaking set of 24 Caprices with virtuosic flair and reverence for the bel canto – or "beautiful singing" – style of the composer's generation. Playing on the ‘ex-Bazzini, ex-Soldat' Guarneri del Gesù violin from 1742, Barton Pine channels the composer's own technical wizardry as well as his love for beautiful melodies. Rachel Barton Pine: Bel Canto Paganini on Avie AV-2374 (2 CDs) is the WFMT: Chicago - Feature New Release for May 31. Featured tracks are: Paganini: Solo Violin Caprice No 24 in A minor (4:25)
Barton Pine: Introduction, Theme & Variations on God Defend New Zealand (4:43)     p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

Rachel Barton Pine recent release - Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices and other Works for Solo Violin is a musical tightrope of works that samples virtually all of the most challenging techniques possible on the violin. Pine's 35th album and third release on Avie records, marks the first time an American-born female violinist has recorded this repertoire.  Bel Canto Paganini includes all 24 Caprices, as well as Paganini's Introduction and Variations on ‘Nel cor più non mi sento from Paisiello's La molinara; Duet for One, and Caprice d'adieu. Pine marks the profound influence Paganini's compositions have had on her by concluding the album with her own Introduction, Theme and Variations on ‘God Defend New Zealand, inspired by Paganini's legacy of creating virtuosic themes and variations. Pine interviewed with WQED-FM: PITTSBURGH - Ethan Simmons, regarding the release and focuses on the mythicism of Niccolo Paganini. LISTEN TO THE SEGMENT

The latest from Rachel Barton Pine is some of the most challenging violin repertoire to perform. You wouldn't realize it with the ease that Pine tosses it off, or by the singing lines she brings to Niccolo Paganini's music. Bel Canto Paganini dazzles and soothes the listener. WBAA - Radio Purdue's John Clare spoke to Rachel about her 35th recording. The violinist discusses Bel Canto Paganini, including a special bow, unusual sounds, and performing rituals. Find out more about Bel Canto Paganini and be sure to listen for this new release and more on WBAA Classical 101.3FM Radio Purdue. LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

Classical IPR's New Release of the Week for May 29 is the 35th album by violinist Rachel Barton Pine. The centerpiece of the album, "Bel Canto Paganini," is Pine's performance of Niccolò Paganini's 24 caprices for solo violin. Of the 24 Paganini caprices, Pine says in the album's liner notes, "I always felt that the Caprices tell an incredible story and that hearing them in their entirety reveals something about the violin and about Paganini that is lost when hearing isolated Caprices." It took her several years to build up to playing all 24 caprices in a row in concert, and this album marks the first time an American-born woman violinist has recorded all 24 caprices.
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Acclaimed violinist Rachel Barton Pine has released a new album celebrating the solo violin works of Nicolo Paganini.  "Bel Canto Paganini" features the 24 Caprices, as well as the Introduction and Variations on ‘Nel cor più non mi sento' from Paisiello's "La molinara," the Duet for One, and Caprice d'adieu. Pine concludes the album with her own Introduction, Theme and Variations on "God Defend New Zealand," inspired by Paganini's legacy of creating virtuosic themes and variations. Idea Station WCVE: Richmond - Classical host, Mike Goldberg's recently sat down with RBP to discuss the new release. Click here to listen to these excerpts from their chat!   p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

Rachel Barton Pine releases Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices and other Works for Solo Violin, a musical tightrope of works that samples virtually all of the most challenging techniques possible on the violin. Pine's 35th album, this recording will mark her third on Avie records and makes Pine the first American-born female violinist to record this repertoire. In tribute to Paganini's legendary cultivation of his devilish reputation, the recently released album coincides with Paganini's death. In conjunction with this release, RBP sat down with Classical 95.5 Albuquerque 'Morning Brew' host, Brent Stevens to discuss the recording.

Listen to the attached interview

Rachel Barton Pine releases Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices and other Works for Solo Violin, a musical tightrope of works that samples virtually all of the most challenging techniques possible on the violin. Pine's 35th album, this recording will mark her third on Avie records and makes Pine the first American-born female violinist to record this repertoire. In tribute to Paganini's legendary cultivation of his devilish reputation, the recently released album coincides with Paganini's death. In conjunction with this release, RBP has made herself avail for radio interviews over the next 2 days, May 23rd & 24th. The 27 interviews include stations in the Philadelphia, San Francisco, St. Louis, Houston, Portland, Detroit, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, and Austin, among others. Watch for our tweets throughout the day.

Violinst Rachel Barton Pine has been appearing more frequently on the West Coast, and for fans of fine string playing, that's good news. Last month, with her sweet-sounding viola d'amore in tow, she led the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra downtown in an all-Baroque program. On Saturday, she's making her debut with the Pasadena Symphony, led by principal guest conductor Nicholas McGegan. The Chicago-based Pine, 42, favors a personal touch. She writes her own liner notes, and her set of Bach's Six Sonatas and Partitas for Unaccompanied Violin was recorded in the Chicago church where she first performed at age 4. She also composed all the cadenzas on her recent set of the complete Mozart violin concertos with Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. "Performing your own cadenzas is always the best thing, because it's going to be a reflection of your feelings about the piece," Pine said by phone from Columbus, Ohio, where she was giving a concert and a master class. "It's fresh and interesting for the audience and really personal." READ THE FULL Los Angeles Times ARTICLE p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}

WRTI's Mark Pinto fills us in on the latest classical music CDs Saturdays at 5 pm on Classical New Releases. Here are five newly released recordings he recommends. Take a look! Rachel Barton Pine, Testament: Complete Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin by J. S. Bach - The solo violin music of Bach is a thing of rare grace and beauty in the hands of Rachel Barton Pine in this new recording of these pinnacles of the violin literature. She spools out Bach's melodies and counter-melodies like strings of pearls, clearly articulating each note and never letting the momentum sag. Also impressive is the period instrument sound she achieves by using a baroque bow and vibrato-less touch on a "modern" instrument (a 1742 Guarneri del Gesu). As Pine relates in the booklet notes, this is music that she has lived with from her earliest years as a violinist, which culminated at age 18 in her triumph at the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig. There is an image of J.S. Bach in stained glass at Pine's church in Chicago. So, too, this recording lovingly and definitively enshrines these towering achievements of the great master of counterpoint and harmony. SEE THE FULL WRTI PAGE

Chicago-based harpsichordist, conductor and early music specialist, Jory Vinikour, founded the Great Lakes Baroque series last year. This Friday, Vinikour will be joined by another Chicago-based early music specialist, violinist Rachel Barton Pine. For Pine, Bach is by far her favorite composer in the Baroque era. His faith is infused in everything he wrote. "It's never absent from all of his music. That spiritual quality, I think, is in all of his works, whether they're explicitly sacred music or not. That sense of music being something greater than ourselves," she says. Pine grew up in a church with a beautiful sanctuary, with carved wood and stained glass. There was one stained glass window in particular that stood out to Pine. It was of Bach in the company of other biblical and religious figures, which made him seen just as important, she explains. "To me, Bach's music was church, and it was sort of inseparable," Pine says. She has been studying Baroque era music with specialists in historically informed performance practice. Pine has a baroque violin and a modern violin, but plays predominantly with the modern violin because, she explains, "it's hard enough to travel on an airplane with one [violin]." But, she says she always plays with her baroque bow.  Pine and Vinikour will play the music of Bach for the season-ending performance by Great Lakes Baroque Friday evening at the North Shore Congregational Church in Fox Point.   LISTEN TO THE WUWM: Milwaukee Radio SEGMENT

Internationally acclaimed violinist Rachel Barton Pine was denied boarding her April 27 American Airlines evening flight #3542 because she was carrying on the "ex-Bazzini ex-Soldat" 1742 Joseph Guarneri "del Gesu" violin, on lifetime loan to her from an anonymous patron.  The plane was to take her from her hometown Chicago O'Hare International Airport to Albuquerque, NM for her engagement this weekend with the New Mexico Philharmonic.
 
Pine was the first passenger down the jet bridge.  However, the captain (who would not give his name to Pine) refused to allow her to board the plane with the violin case because "its dimensions were not correct for a carry-on". Pine flies over 100,000 miles a year with American Airlines and has flown the same plane configuration on numerous occasions, placing the violin case in the overhead compartment. Pine shared with the captain the American Airlines policy stated on their website:
"You can travel with small musical instruments as your carry-on item on a first come, first serve basis as long as it: Fits in the overhead bin; or Fits under the seat in front of you." According to Pine, the captain replied, "It is not going on because I say so."

Pine is scheduled to perform the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the New Mexico Philharmonic, conducted by Fawzi Haimor on April 30. She was flying the evening of the 27th to attend events the next day with students in the New Mexico Philharmonic's Young Musician Initiative program as part of her community outreach schedule. According to Pine, agents at the American Airlines ticket counter were very apologetic about the crew's behavior and worked closely with Pine to locate and rebook her on a flight option that would get her to Albuquerque in time to honor her commitment to the young musicians.  Rather than a direct flight arriving at 10:30pm that evening, Pine took a 5am flight with a connection through Phoenix the next day. Unfortunately, these experiences are common among musicians traveling with fragile instruments, even after the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 that required U.S. carriers to allow passengers to carry on a small musical instrument, like a violin or guitar, provided it could be stored in an overhead compartment, closet, or under the seat. "The Department of Transportation and the airlines have established important policies to protect musical instruments.  However, those policies are meaningless if they are not enforced or if the airline staff and crews are not properly educated and trained." says Pine. Pine's new album Testament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by J.S. Bach released April 1 from Avie Records was #1 on the Billboard charts this week. SEE Violinist.com POST READ The Strad READ Chicago Sun Times

Classical violinist Rachel Barton Pine is known around the world for writing her own cadenzas and researching music so she plays it as the composer originally intended. Her 30th album, released this spring, is "Testament: Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin." But she has another passion: she's a self-confessed head banger, performing heavy metal with a band. She played for us recently when we met up with her at the Community for Creative Non-Violence, Washington, D.C.'s largest homeless shelter. Pine visits homeless shelters, hospitals and prisons while she is traveling to give back through music. "I think more and more artists, especially the younger generation, are really understanding the value of community engagement," she said. "If we were only playing for the converted, we would not be honoring our gifts to the fullest extent." Part of the reason she has devoted so much energy to these efforts is that she grew up in a low-income family in Chicago, with a father who was chronically unemployed. Her mother home-schooled Pine so she could focus on her violin studies from an early age after she fell in love with the instrument at the age of four. By age five, she had given her first recital. At seven, she was playing with a professional orchestra, and by 10, with the Chicago Symphony. Now, she "plays it forward" by helping low-income students pay the types of extra costs many people don't anticipate: travel fees, sheet music and concert clothing. Her Global Heart Strings project also supports aspiring musicians in developing countries. Regardless of circumstance, young people need the chance to "explore who they are as artists … to really get in touch with their own personal feelings about the music and their own creativity," Pine said. "And that's why it's so important that every young person have the chance to study music, whether or not they aspire to do it as their life's work." For Pine, life may be coming full circle. Her four-year old daughter who travels with her and her husband is preparing to give her first violin recital. Watch the NewsHour tonight to learn more about Pine's music and outreach, and watch her play Crazy Train 

Rachel Barton Pine's relationship with the music of Bach runs deep. She first heard and fell in love with it at St Paul's Church of Christ in Chicago. That's where she first played Bach, at the age of four, and where she returned to record Bach's Six Sonatas and Partitas. Pine says, "I'm so pleased to have recorded in my favorite sound space for these works, the place that I consider to truly be my emotional home for playing them. Rachel Barton Pine: Testament on Avie is the WFMT: Chicago - NEW RELEASE OF THE WEEK. Featured track is Bach: Solo Violin Sonata No 3 in C major, BWV 1005 (20:49)    

In celebration of Johann Sebastian Bach's March 21 birthday, Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine releases her Avie Records recording - Testament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by Johann Sebastian Bach. Johann Sebastian Bach's contributions to classical music are universally acknowledged and celebrated as among the most significant and profound. His contrapuntal writing continues to set the standard by which any musical composition is judged. Among the greatest examples of his mastery of counterpoint, the Six Sonatas and Partitas for unaccompanied violin are a cornerstone of every violinist's study and repertoire.  Rachel Barton Pine spoke with Spokane Public Radio's Jim Tevenan about the new album. LISTEN

Violinists often take on a movement or two of a Bach sonata or partita to show off their chops. Unaccompanied, the violinist is out there alone to roll out harmonies and contrapuntal textures that you'd think would be impossible with a bow on a single stringed instrument. Usually, what is most impressive about such efforts is the athleticism and agility of the violinist. Who hasn't wondered at the technique involved in a performance of the famous "Chaconne"? At the National Gallery on Sunday, violinist Rachel Barton Pine aimed the spotlight not at her own dazzling technique but rather at the music in as astonishing and joyful a performance of all three sonatas and three partitas as I've ever heard. There was none of the rhythmic distortion, the little extra time that so many violinists steal to bridge the bow across all four strings and is excused as a stylistic nicety; no posturing at the climax of a series of impossibly fast ornamental turns and no exaggerated phrasing or tempos in the graceful slower dance movements - just elegant ideas realized elegantly. READ THE FULL Washington Post ARTICLE

Johann Sebastian Bach's contributions to classical music are universally acknowledged and celebrated as among the most significant and profound. His contrapuntal writing continues to set the standard by which any musical composition is judged. Among the greatest examples of his mastery of counterpoint, the Six Sonatas and Partitas for unaccompanied violin are a cornerstone of every violinist's study and repertoire. Rachel Barton Pine is the only American gold medalist of the J.S. Bach International Violin Competition in Leipzig, Germany, an honor she won in 1992 at age 17. The quality of her scholarship and depth of her experience has continued to distinguish her interpretation of Bach's music. WUOL: Louisville KY - Alan Brandt had the chance to talk to RBP and ask her about her musical journey with Bach and how her interpretation of his music has changed since she won the Bach Competition in 1992.

Listen for her new release during WUOL's regular programming on Classical 90.5.

Any serious violinist is going to be well-acquainted with the unaccompanied works of Johann Sebastian Bach.  Several violinists have taken on these seminal, almost mystical works, in recordings.  Rachel Barton Pine brings not only the artistic sensitivity and talent to these six pieces, but also great credentials:  She's the only American Gold Medalist of the J.S. Bach International Violin Competition in Leipzig.  Pine's meticulous details (bowing, articulation, etc.) will appear in a major new book about the sonatas and partitas by Carl Fischer.  Her newest CD, "Testament" (Avie Records) displays Pine's deep knowledge of the score, and her ability to express her own personality through the music. Ms. Pine has made a lifelong study of Bach's manuscript and, for context, the great composer's contemporaries who wrote music for unaccompanied violin.  Until Brahms' friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim, made the case for these 6 suites to be played publicly, they were thought of as "didactic exercises", as Rachel explains in my recorded conversation.  We also talk about her recent visit to Portland (via the Friends of Chamber Music), and her live appearance on our own Thursdays @ Three As well as Rachel's love of so many other styles, including Scottish fiddle and heavy metal (Rachel cites a recent London study that showed that classical music listeners and heavy metal fans have much in common:  deep knowledge of their respective genre, and great passion for the music.  A "testament" which Ms. Pine will readily proclaim. LISTEN TO All Classical Portland - John Pitman's interview with Rachel Barton Pine

Cellist Pablo Casals said he started every morning playing the music of Bach because, for him, it was like a benediction on the day. Violinist Rachel Barton Pine is releasing a recording of Bach's solo violin work. It features the complete sonatas and partitas. The album has a benediction-like title, "Testament." Barton Pine said the recording is a testament of her journey with Bach thus far. "I first encountered the music of Bach in my church at 2 years old," she said in an interview with "City Lights" host Lois Reitzes. "In my particular congregation, there's actually a stained glass window of Bach in the sanctuary. It's like everyone in the Bible and then Bach." "Testament" will be released Friday. LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW

In celebration of Johann Sebastian Bach's March 21 birthday, Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine releases her new Avie recording Testament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by Johann Sebastian Bach. Johann Sebastian Bach's contributions to classical music are universally acknowledged and celebrated as among the most significant and profound. His contrapuntal writing continues to set the standard by which any musical composition is judged. Among the greatest examples of his mastery of counterpoint, the Six Sonatas and Partitas for unaccompanied violin are a cornerstone of every violinist's study and repertoire. Pine who has made a lifelong study of Bach, is the only American gold medalist of the J.S. Bach International Violin Competition in Leipzig, Germany, an honor she won in 1992 at age 17. The quality of her scholarship and depth of her experience has continued to distinguish her interpretation of Bach's music. Listen to the attached interview with RBP and KMBH: Harlingen TX - Mario Munoz

In celebration of Johann Sebastian Bach's March 21st birthday, violinist Rachel Barton Pine is releasing her newest recording Testament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin. Pine who has made a lifelong study of Bach, is the only American gold medalist of the J.S. Bach International Violin Competition in Leipzig, Germany, an honor she won in 1992 at age 17. Classical KING FM: Seattle - Dave Beck spoke to Pine about how performing Bach in her church at the age of four put her on the path to a professional solo career, and about her approach to Bach's music for Solo Violin. LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW

Happy Bach's 331st birthday! To celebrate, we had a partita party with violinist Rachel Barton Pine. (What's a "partita," you ask? Listen and learn, my friends.) Rachel explains Bach's sonatas and partitas and what makes them unique, and walks us through several examples from her new album Testament, which she released on March 21st to coincide with Bach's bday. Also discussed: What Bach means to her personally, and whether one needs to wear a beret when playing French music (spoiler alert: oui). 99% of the music in this episode is from Rachel Barton Pine's new release,  Testament: Complete Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin by J. S. Bach. The other 1% is the producer's fault. Audio production by Todd "Partodda" Hulslander with sarabande by Dacia Clay and editing by Mark DiClaudio. SEE THE Houston Public Media's - Classical Classroom AND LISTEN TO THE SEGMENT

ArtScene, with host/producer - Erika Funke is a daily short program on WVIA: Pittston PA which brings attention to the area's arts and cultural events. Join her weekdays at 11:00am for interviews, reviews and commentaries on films, books, jazz, and classical music. Let Erika's ArtScene help you plan your weekend! On this Monday March 21 segment of ArtScene, with host/producer - Erika Funke celebrates the 331st birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach with Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine. Pine who is set to release her new Avie recording Testament: Complete Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, talks about the CD project. Listen to the attached interview

In celebration of Johann Sebastian Bach's March 21st birthday, violinist Rachel Barton Pine is releasing her newest recording Testament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin. Pine who has made a lifelong study of Bach, is the only American gold medalist of the J.S. Bach International Violin Competition in Leipzig, Germany, an honor she won in 1992 at age 17. Listen to the best-selling violinist with WGTE: Toledo - Brad Cresswell previewing the album and discussing these cornerstones of Bach's repertoire. 

After many years of studying Bach's sonatas and partitas for solo violin, Rachel Barton Pine has decided the time is right to release her recording of these hallowed works. We will preview her new double album, Testament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by J.S. Bach, this week. And WDAV: Davidson NC - Rachel Stewart will welcome Rachel Barton Pine to the Biscuits and Bach Sunday March 20 program for a conversation about why these works are important, why she chose to record them in St. Paul's Church of Christ in Chicago and how she is raising her young daughter while maintaining her busy schedule. Listen to the attached interview

Johann Sebastian Bach is very highly regarded by musicians and music lovers alike. Each year, there are festivals for his music, and around the world, Bach's birthday is celebrated (click this link to see the google search on birthday celebrations and another of silly pictures of JSB.) WBAA will have music by Bach today (March 21st) and loves to feature the baroque master. Recently, Music Director John Clare had a chance to speak with Rachel Barton Pine (you might have seen her with the Lafayette Symphony) about her latest release, the solo Sonatas and Partitas by Johann Sebastian Bach, Testament. Pine recorded the album in her church, St. Paul's United Church of Christ in Chicago, a place filled with  musical, personal and religious significance to Pine. It was at St. Paul's that Pine says she first encountered the violin and first played the works of Bach at age four! By age five she had identified music as her life's calling, signing her kindergarten papers "Rachel, Violinist."  Pine says, "Studying Bach and sharing his music with my congregation gave me a sense of what it really means to be a musician.One of the reasons that I have never suffered from stage fright is that I have always known that nervousness comes from a threat to the self.  By following Bach's example, when I play for others it is not about myself but about joining with the listeners to experience this amazing music with comes from something greater than ourselves."  Listen to the attached interview with RBP and WBAA: W. Lafayette IN. John Clare

In celebration of Johann Sebastian Bach's March 21st birthday, violinist Rachel Barton Pine is releasing her newest recording Testament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin. I had the honor to sit down and talk with Rachel about the recording and the background that led her to choose these works. She also discussed the instrument and bow that she uses.  Johann Sebastian Bach's contributions to classical music are universally acknowledged and celebrated as among the most significant and profound. Rachel Barton Pine who has made a lifelong study of Bach, is the only American gold medalist of the J.S. Bach International Violin Competition in Leipzig, Germany, an honor she won in 1992 at age 17. The CD will be available on April 1st. Enjoy the attached interview with 88.9 WCVE: Richmond VA Classical Music Host - Mike Goldberg that he aired on his Breakfast Classics show on Sunday March 20.

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine returns again and again to her first musical love, J. S. Bach, whose work was what she bowed at the age of four for her first public appearance at St. Paul's Sanctuary in Chicago. In her latest release - Testament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by Johann Sebastian Bach, Pine explores his solo sonatas and partitas which she deems "among the greatest human achievements," that she's always viewed with the deepest reverence.  So, celebrate the birth of J. S. Bach with KUAF: Fayetteville AR and violinist Rachel Barton Pine, who commenting on the sonatas and partitas says - "Studying them is a never-ending pleasure. You don't need to bring a book of Sudoku puzzles with you on an airplane. You can just look at your Bach score for a while and try to figure out what he was doing there." Find out more in Katy Henriksen's exclusive interview with RBP plus music from the new recording on Monday's program from 11 to noon on KUAF and 6 - 7 p.m. on KUAF-2.

In celebration of Johann Sebastian Bach's March 21 birthday, Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine releases her new Avie recording Testament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by Johann Sebastian Bach. Johann Sebastian Bach's contributions to classical music are universally acknowledged and celebrated as among the most significant and profound. His contrapuntal writing continues to set the standard by which any musical composition is judged. Among the greatest examples of his mastery of counterpoint, the Six Sonatas and Partitas for unaccompanied violin are a cornerstone of every violinist's study and repertoire. Pine who has made a lifelong study of Bach, is the only American gold medalist of the J.S. Bach International Violin Competition in Leipzig, Germany, an honor she won in 1992 at age 17. The quality of her scholarship and depth of her experience has continued to distinguish her interpretation of Bach's music. KMozart: Los Angeles Nick Toth interviewed Rachel Barton Pine about Bach and the new album for the Arts Report.   LISTEN. 

In celebration of Johann Sebastian Bach's March 21 birthday, Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine releases her new Avie recording Testament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by Johann Sebastian Bach. Pine who has made a lifelong study of Bach, is the only American gold medalist of the J.S. Bach International Violin Competition in Leipzig, Germany, an honor she won in 1992 at age 17. The quality of her scholarship and depth of her experience has continued to distinguish her interpretation of Bach's music. NET Music Director Genevieve Randall talks with Rachel Barton Pine about her new recording of J. S. Bach, released just in time for his March birthday.  LISTEN

In celebration of Johann Sebastian Bach's March 21 birthday, Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine releases her new Avie recording Testament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by Johann Sebastian Bach. Johann Sebastian Bach's contributions to classical music are universally acknowledged and celebrated as among the most significant and profound. His contrapuntal writing continues to set the standard by which any musical composition is judged. Among the greatest examples of his mastery of counterpoint, the Six Sonatas and Partitas for unaccompanied violin are a cornerstone of every violinist's study and repertoire. Pine who has made a lifelong study of Bach, is the only American gold medalist of the J.S. Bach International Violin Competition in Leipzig, Germany, an honor she won in 1992 at age 17. The quality of her scholarship and depth of her experience has continued to distinguish her interpretation of Bach's music. WRCJ: Detroit - Chris Felcyn interviewed Rachel Barton Pine about Bach and the new album. LISTEN IN LIVE TODAY Monday March 21, @3P ET. The segment is 55 mins.  The interview is also attached

In celebration of Johann Sebastian Bach's March 21 birthday, Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine releases her new Avie recording Testament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by Johann Sebastian Bach. Johann Sebastian Bach's contributions to classical music are universally acknowledged and celebrated as among the most significant and profound. His contrapuntal writing continues to set the standard by which any musical composition is judged. Rachel Barton Pine who has made a lifelong study of Bach, is the only American gold medalist of the J.S. Bach International Violin Competition in Leipzig, Germany, an honor she won in 1992 at age 17. The quality of her scholarship and depth of her experience has continued to distinguish her interpretation of Bach's music. WCLV: Cleveland - Angela Mitchell interviewed Pine about Bach and the new album. LISTEN IN LIVE TODAY Monday March 21, @2:30p ET. The interview is also attached

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine returns to WFMT in Chicago for her 2nd straight day of interviews with Classical Radio. Today's station list includes: Houston Public Media, WQED in Pittsburgh, WOSU in Columbus OH, KUAF in Fayetteville AR, KMBH in Harlingen TX and WKAR in East Lansing MI. Barton Pine is set to release here new Avie recording - Testament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by Johann Sebastian Bach on on April 1 in celebration of Bach's March 21 birthday. In conjunction with the release we created this Spotify Playlist. LISTEN

In celebration of Johann Sebastian Bach's March 21 birthday, Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine releases her recording Testament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by Johann Sebastian Bach. The album – her second on Avie Records – is available for sale on April 1. Johann Sebastian Bach's contributions to classical music are universally acknowledged and celebrated as among the most significant and profound. His contrapuntal writing continues to set the standard by which any musical composition is judged. Among the greatest examples of his mastery of counterpoint, the Six Sonatas and Partitas for unaccompanied violin are a cornerstone of every violinist's study and repertoire.  Pine is the only American gold medalist of the J.S. Bach International Violin Competition in Leipzig, Germany, an honor she won in 1992 at age 17. The quality of her scholarship and depth of her experience has continued to distinguish her interpretation of Bach's music.  In conjunction with the release of the CD, Pine is interviewing with over 25 Classical Radio Stations throughout the US. A tour that includes Nationally Syndicated outlets, Statewide Networks and local stations in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, Portland, Cleveland, Seattle, Houston and Pittsburgh.  LISTEN THE OUR RBP Spotify Playlist

Yesterday evening in the Salon of the Hotel Rex, Lara Downes presented the latest installment of The Artist Sessions, her occasional series of "close encounters between musicians and audiences" (her words). Her guest for this particular event was violinist Rachel Barton Pine; and the central topic of both conversation and performances was composers of African descent. The program was framed by the music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor from England and William Grant Still from the United States. Taken together, the careers of these two composers spanned about three-quarters of the twentieth century; yet their presence on concert programs has never been much more than sparse. READ THE FULL examiner.com ARTICLE

In connection with Mozart's birthday on January 27, Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine debuts her new AVIE records release performing the five Mozart Violin Concertos and the Sinfonia Concertante K364 with Sir Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St Martin in the Fields The two-album set will be released January 13 and also features the recording debut of violist Matthew Lipman. "She is one of the most honest of violin players I have ever heard.  And it's a great attraction in this [project], there is no utter embellishment, everything is there for a purpose and musically speaking it makes such good sense with her," said Sir Neville about the collaboration.
 
"I was elated to record Mozart's violin concertos with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.  I grew up on their performances, and working with them exceeded my expectations. Sir Neville's energy, focus and commitment to every detail of the music was incredibly inspiring," Pine says. "Listening to Mozart's operas, I gained an appreciation for the drama and playfulness of his violin concertos.  They are filled with constantly changing characters – now happy, now angry and – boy – is there a lot of flirting!  Each concerto tells a story, and as the soloist, I get to be the storyteller.  I always aspire to base my interpretation within the larger context of historical research and knowledge of other pieces by that particular composer beyond the violin repertoire.  This frees me up to connect to and communicate the emotion of what I am performing," Pine adds. 88FM - KMBH: Harlingen TX - Mario Munoz recently sat down with RBP to discuss the big birthday and the new album. Listen to the attached clips.

The world celebrates Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birthday on January 27. Violinist Rachel Barton Pine has always felt a special connection to Mozart. That's why she has recently released a CD of all 5 Mozart Violin Concertos as well as the Sinfonia Concertante. "I was elated to record Mozart's violin concertos with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.  I grew up on their performances, and working with them exceeded my expectations. Sir Neville's energy, focus and commitment to every detail of the music was incredibly inspiring," Pine says. Pine explains to Jason Rinehart of KEDM: Monroe LA that she was homeschooled as a child -- which helped her get her studies finished more quickly so she would have time to practice more.  Also, Pine speaks about her connection to Brahms.

In connection with Mozart's birthday on January 27, Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine debuts her new AVIE records performing the five Mozart Violin Concertos and the Sinfonia Concertante K364 with Sir Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. The two-album set will be released January 13 and also features the recording debut of violist Matthew Lipman. As a child, Pine was influenced by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields' interpretations of Mozart's music on the soundtrack to Amadeus, one of her favorite films. "I was elated to record Mozart's violin concertos with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.  I grew up on their performances, and working with them exceeded my expectations. Sir Neville's energy, focus and commitment to every detail of the music was incredibly inspiring," Pine says. Commenting on the collaboration, said Sir Neville - "She is one of the most honest of violin players I have ever heard.  And it's a great attraction in this [project], there is no utter embellishment, everything is there for a purpose and musically speaking it makes such good sense with her" Richmond VA's - WCVE Radio wishes Mozart a 'Happy 259th' with the new Rachel Barton Pine CD / Listen to Mike Goldberg's interview with RBP - attached.
 

What do you get when you combine all five of Mozart's violin concertos along with the Sinfonia Concertante in a singlet set? And then you have them performed by one of the world's leading violinists, Rachel Barton Pine? And you find her accompanied not only by the great Academy of St. Martin in the Fields but by its founding director, Sir Neville Marriner? And Avie does all of it up in good, natural sound? You get a darned fine recording all the way around, that's what you get.

Mozart wrote his violin concertos in Salzburg around 1775 or a little before when he still in his late teens. Audiences for the past two hundred-odd years have appreciated their appealing melodies and expressive style. Interestingly, Mozart never returned to the violin concerto as such for the rest of his life, probably because as a piano virtuoso he liked composing for that instrument, writing over twenty-seven piano concertos. (Although, to be fair, Mozart was also a violin prodigy, but later apparently preferring the piano.) In any case, one usually has to buy two or three albums to own all five violin concertos by a single performer, so already it's a good deal to find Ms. Barton Pine doing all of them in one set. Also interestingly, Ms. Barton Pine has recently been playing all five concertos in single concerts. Those must be some programs.  READ THE FULL Classical Candor REVIEW

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine helped us kick off our three-day Mozart Madness musical celebration this Sunday with a short discussion of her new album Mozart: Complete Violin Concertos; Sinfonia Concertante. The two-disc set recorded with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and conductor Sir Neville Marriner includes the complete Mozart Violin Concertos with Pine's own cadenzas. Pine also reveals herself to be a capable writer and researcher in the liner notes she also created for this collection released January 13 on the Avie record label.  LISTEN TO THE WCPE: Wake Forest NC - Preview FEATURE

Each week KDFC: San Francisco members can download a free mp3 from some of the biggest releases in the world of Classical music. Turns out, violinist Rachel Barton Pine is Mad About Mozart too! Her latest is a recording of the 5 Violin Concertos with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields sparked this comment from the group's legendary conductor Sir Neville Marriner - "She is one of the most honest of violin players I have ever heard.  And it's a great attraction in this [project], there is no utter embellishment, everything is there for a purpose and musically speaking it makes such good sense with her" Download the mp3 of Rachel Barton Pine performing the finale of Mozart's Violin Concerto #3.

Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine debuts her new AVIE records release in connection with WAM's birthday on January 27, performing the five Mozart Violin Concertos and the Sinfonia Concertante K364 with Sir Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St Martin in the Fields The two-album set will be released January 13 and also features the recording debut of violist Matthew Lipman. "She is one of the most honest of violin players I have ever heard.  And it's a great attraction in this [project], there is no utter embellishment, everything is there for a purpose and musically speaking it makes such good sense with her," said Sir Neville about the collaboration.
 
"I was elated to record Mozart's violin concertos with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.  I grew up on their performances, and working with them exceeded my expectations. Sir Neville's energy, focus and commitment to every detail of the music was incredibly inspiring," Pine says. "Listening to Mozart's operas, I gained an appreciation for the drama and playfulness of his violin concertos.  They are filled with constantly changing characters – now happy, now angry and – boy – is there a lot of flirting!  Each concerto tells a story, and as the soloist, I get to be the storyteller.  I always aspire to base my interpretation within the larger context of historical research and knowledge of other pieces by that particular composer beyond the violin repertoire.  This frees me up to connect to and communicate the emotion of what I am performing," Pine adds. Listen to the attached interview with Michael Dolan from WWUH: West Hartford CT

In connection with Mozart's birthday on January 27, Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine has released the five Mozart Violin Concertos and the Sinfonia Concertante K364 with Sir Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. The two-album debuts on AVIE records set also features the recording debut of violist Matthew Lipman. "She is one of the most honest of violin players I have ever heard.  And it's a great attraction in this [project], there is no utter embellishment, everything is there for a purpose and musically speaking it makes such good sense with her," said Sir Neville about the collaboration. To help celebrate Mozart's birthday on January 27 WGUC: Cincinnati is offering the new disc all week. Listen to the attached spot with a portion of the Rachel Barton Pine's interview.

One of the premiere violinists of our time, Rachel Barton Pine, discusses Mozart, from her childhood obsession with 'Amadeus' to her new 2-CD set of all five Mozart violin concertos conducted by 90-year-old Sir Neville Marriner. Pine began violin lessons at age 3, played with an orchestra for the first time at age 7, and debuted with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 10. She is currently a finalist candidate for the Music Director position of Seattle Baroque Orchestra...and in her free time, she plays in a heavy metal band!  LISTEN TO Rachel Barton Pine's Interview with Seattle's Classic KING-FM

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart only wrote five concertos for the violin, and all of them before his 20th birthday. Rachel Barton Pine says they're each distinctive and brilliant in their own way. She's just released a new double CD of the complete set in time for this year's birthday (plus the Sinfonia Concertante) with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

Rachel Barton Pine was inspired to record the set after performing a marathon concert of all of them in 2011 (three weeks after the birth of her first child!). It was hearing the cycle together that helped her see how each of the concertos are distinct. "I don't believe in doing marathon concerts for their own sake… in other words, the audience isn't there to just see if I can get through it – that's not the point. But whether I do the six Bach sonatas and partitas or the 24 Paganini caprices or whatever it is in a single evening, it's really about the musical journey, and hearing each of these great works in the context of its fellows gives you insights that you would have never heard if you just experienced them in isolation... If I play them each like 'nice Mozart' and do that five times, it's going to be a bit boring, like the same thing over and over again. So I needed to define for myself what makes number 3 unique, and different from number 4 and from number 5?" She says while the 5th is the one she would want to analyze and show respect to, the third is more of a friend. "There's something about number 3, it just has a personal feel, a friendliness to it. It's not up on a pedestal, but it's like your good friend, that you're hanging out with. It just puts a smile on my face." Listen to the attached Interview with Rachel Barton Pine and KDFC: San Francisco - State Of the Arts host Jeffrey Freymann

In connection with Mozart's birthday on January 27, Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine released her AVIE records debut recording, performing the five Mozart Violin Concertos and the Sinfonia Concertante K364 with Sir Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. The two-album set will be released January 13 and also features the recording debut of violist Matthew Lipman. "I was elated to record Mozart's violin concertos with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.  I grew up on their performances, and working with them exceeded my expectations. Sir Neville's energy, focus and commitment to every detail of the music was incredibly inspiring," Pine says. WABE: Atlanta - City Lights host Lois Reitzes sat down with RBP to discuss the album, the birthday and her amazing career. Listen to the attached interview

Rachel Barton Pine records for the first time with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and Sir Neville Marriner.  I found these to be among the best new performances of Mozart's violin concertos to come our way in a while.  Also, the first complete set in several years by anyone.  I am particularly impressed with the expressiveness – not a surprise after her well-researched interpretation of the Bruch Scottish Fantasy, which followed her study in Scotland – and also the clarity of line.  Ms. Pine has recorded her own cadenzas, something of which Mozart, known for improvising on the spot, would no doubt have approved.  Sir Neville's comment about Rachel Barton Pine:  "She is one of the most honest of violin players I have ever heard.  And it's a great attraction in this…there is no utter embellishment, everything is there for a purpose and musically speaking it makes such good sense with her."  In the Sinfonia Concertante, Ms. Pine also introduces violist Matthew Lipman, recipient of her REP Award, which provides services and funding for classical music education, research, performances, and artists, to benefit listeners and learners alike. LISTEN TO THE KQAC: Portland INTERVIEW

In connection with Mozart's birthday on January 27, Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine debuts her new AVIE records release performing the five Mozart Violin Concertos and the Sinfonia Concertante K364 with Sir Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St Martin in the Fields The two-album set will be released January 13 and also features the recording debut of violist Matthew Lipman. "She is one of the most honest of violin players I have ever heard.  And it's a great attraction in this [project], there is no utter embellishment, everything is there for a purpose and musically speaking it makes such good sense with her," said Sir Neville about the collaboration. "I was elated to record Mozart's violin concertos with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.  I grew up on their performances, and working with them exceeded my expectations. Sir Neville's energy, focus and commitment to every detail of the music was incredibly inspiring," Pine says. "Listening to Mozart's operas, I gained an appreciation for the drama and playfulness of his violin concertos.  They are filled with constantly changing characters – now happy, now angry and – boy – is there a lot of flirting!  Each concerto tells a story, and as the soloist, I get to be the storyteller.  I always aspire to base my interpretation within the larger context of historical research and knowledge of other pieces by that particular composer beyond the violin repertoire.  This frees me up to connect to and communicate the emotion of what I am performing," Pine adds. Listen to the attached interview with Classic 107: Winnipeg

In connection with Mozart's birthday today - January 27, Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine debuts her AVIE records CD performing the five Mozart Violin Concertos and the Sinfonia Concertante K364 with Sir Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. The two-album set will be released January 13 and also features the recording debut of violist Matthew Lipman. "Listening to Mozart's operas, I gained an appreciation for the drama and playfulness of his violin concertos.  They are filled with constantly changing characters – now happy, now angry and – boy – is there a lot of flirting!  Each concerto tells a story, and as the soloist, I get to be the storyteller.  I always aspire to base my interpretation within the larger context of historical research and knowledge of other pieces by that particular composer beyond the violin repertoire.  This frees me up to connect to and communicate the emotion of what I am performing," Pine adds. Said Sir Neville about the collaboration - "She is one of the most honest of violin players I have ever heard.  And it's a great attraction in this [project], there is no utter embellishment, everything is there for a purpose and musically speaking it makes such good sense with her."   LISTEN TO THE ATTACHED INTERVIEW WITH KHFM: Albuquerque NM - Brent Stevens
 
 

Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine debuts her new AVIE records release in connection with WAM's birthday on January 27, performing the five Mozart Violin Concertos and the Sinfonia Concertante K364 with Sir Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St Martin in the Fields The two-album set will be released January 13 and also features the recording debut of violist Matthew Lipman. "She is one of the most honest of violin players I have ever heard.  And it's a great attraction in this [project], there is no utter embellishment, everything is there for a purpose and musically speaking it makes such good sense with her," said Sir Neville about the collaboration.
 
"I was elated to record Mozart's violin concertos with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.  I grew up on their performances, and working with them exceeded my expectations. Sir Neville's energy, focus and commitment to every detail of the music was incredibly inspiring," Pine says. "Listening to Mozart's operas, I gained an appreciation for the drama and playfulness of his violin concertos.  They are filled with constantly changing characters – now happy, now angry and – boy – is there a lot of flirting!  Each concerto tells a story, and as the soloist, I get to be the storyteller.  I always aspire to base my interpretation within the larger context of historical research and knowledge of other pieces by that particular composer beyond the violin repertoire.  This frees me up to connect to and communicate the emotion of what I am performing," Pine adds. Listen to the attached interview with Indiana Public Radio's Steven Turpin

LISTEN TO THE PART 2 OF EMILY REESE'S INTERVIEW WITH RBP Violinist Rachel Barton Pine is back to talk about cadenzas and Turkish music in Mozart's Violin Concerti on this week's episode of Learning to Listen. Mozart wrote five concerti for violin, before he turned 20. Although they all follow the "fast-slow-fast" form (an up-tempo movement, followed by a slower one, followed by another peppy movement), each concerto is unique. In a broader sense, a concerto often has a "cadenza" at some point, a point in the music where the ensemble stops and the soloist continues. The soloist tends to play alone, in a virtuosic style, for several seconds (even minutes, in some cases). Rachel will chat about what cadenzas were like in the 18th century, and she'll also delve into why Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 is nicknamed "Turkish". Playlist: WA Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3, 1st movement  Rachel Barton Pine, violin Neville Marriner, cond Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Avie 2317   WA Mozart Violin Concerto #2, 2nd movement Rachel Barton Pine, violin Neville Marriner, cond Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Avie 2317   WA Mozart Violin Concerto #2, 1st movement Rachel Barton Pine, violin Neville Marriner, cond Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Avie 2317   WA Mozart Violin Concerto #3, full Rachel Barton Pine, violin Neville Marriner, cond Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Avie 2317   WA Mozart Violin Concerto #5, 3rd movement Rachel Barton Pine, violin Neville Marriner, cond Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Avie 2317 Learning to Listen is a Syndicated Feature airing Nationally on Classical 24 & Statewide on Minnesota Public Radio

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine discusses her latest album, a collaboration with legendary conductor Sir Neville Marriner for all five of Wolfgang Mozart's violin concertos. As a child, Pine was influenced by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields' interpretations of Mozart's music on the soundtrack to Amadeus, one of her favorite films. "I was elated to record Mozart's violin concertos with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.  I grew up on their performances, and working with them exceeded my expectations. Sir Neville's energy, focus and commitment to every detail of the music was incredibly inspiring," Pine says. Sir Neville said about the collaboration - "She is one of the most honest of violin players I have ever heard.  And it's a great attraction in this [project], there is no utter embellishment, everything is there for a purpose and musically speaking it makes such good sense with her."  LISTEN TO THE Interview by WGTE: Toledo OH, Brad Cresswell

How's this for a generation-spanning recording: Rachel Barton Pine, a 40-year-old violinist from Chicago, joins Neville Marriner, the 90-year-old English conductor, to perform Mozart's five violin concertos, pieces written in the 1770s when the composer was still a teenager. Joined by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, a group Marriner co-founded in 1959, the performances are stylish, graceful and exuberant. Barton Pine plays her own cadenzas, as is the practice, each rendered in the Classical style. In the Sinfonia concertante K. 364 she is joined by another Chicagoan, the viola-player Matthew Lipman, and the results tasteful throughout -- not too Romantic and too fussy either. Rachel Barton Pine's Avie recording of Mozart: Complete Violin Concertos with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields led by Sir Neville Marriner is the WQXR: New York 'Album of the Week'

In celebration of Mozart's birthday on January 27 and Sir Neville Marriner's 90th year, violinist Rachel Barton Pine on her debut Avie Records release, performs the five Mozart Violin Concertos, as well as the Sinfonia Concertante, with Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. She has drawn on a tremendous amount of research in crafting her interpretations. Her study of the composer's operas strengthened her appreciation for the drama and playfulness in the concertos, and she highlights the subtle nuaces of the music's ever-changing dialogue. Mozart's Violin Concerto No 3 in G major, K 216 by Rachel Barton Pine and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields / Sir Neville Marriner is the WFMT: Chicago - New Release of the Week

In connection with Mozart's birthday on January 27, Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine debuts her new AVIE records release performing the five Mozart Violin Concertos and the Sinfonia Concertante K364 with Sir Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. The two-album set will be released January 13 and also features the recording debut of violist Matthew Lipman. "She is one of the most honest of violin players I have ever heard.  And it's a great attraction in this [project], there is no utter embellishment, everything is there for a purpose and musically speaking it makes such good sense with her," said Sir Neville about the collaboration. "I was elated to record Mozart's violin concertos with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.  I grew up on their performances, and working with them exceeded my expectations. Sir Neville's energy, focus and commitment to every detail of the music was incredibly inspiring," Pine says. RBP spills the secret to Mozart's teenage rebellion and talks about recording all of his violin concertos with KUSC- Los Angeles, Brian Lauritzen. Listen to the attached clip.

Rachel Barton Pine, who performed recently in Ames as part of the period-instrument group Trio Settecento, has just released her first recording with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and Sir Neville Marriner - and last week, she talked with me about it. The set includes all of Mozart's concertos for violin and it's outstanding. In our interview, she talks about why each concerto is a mini-opera, the value of writing your own cadenzas, the lessons a "modern-instrument" player can learn from playing period instruments (although she uses her modernized Guarneri  on this set), and more. And to my ears, her perfect "Chicago accent" is music in itself! (I'll be broadcasting the Concerto no. 5 on Sunday afternoon - join me on IPR Classical to hear it!) LISTEN TO THE IOWA PUBLIC RADIO INTERVIEW

In connection with Mozart's birthday on January 27, Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine has released the five Mozart Violin Concertos and the Sinfonia Concertante K364 with Sir Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. The two-album debuts on AVIE records set also features the recording debut of violist Matthew Lipman. "She is one of the most honest of violin players I have ever heard.  And it's a great attraction in this [project], there is no utter embellishment, everything is there for a purpose and musically speaking it makes such good sense with her," said Sir Neville about the collaboration.  WRCJ: Detroit - Chris Felcyn sat down with Rachel to discuss the project. Listen to the attached interview.

What makes Mozart's violin concertos so special? Is it that he only wrote 5 of them? That he wrote him when he was a teenager? That they are both beautiful AND hilarious? What is it?? Violinist Rachel Barton Pine returns to the Classroom to spell out why these pieces are so special - generally and personally - that she decided to record all of them. All music in this episode is from Rachel Barton Pine's new CD, Mozart: Complete Violin Concertos, Sinfonia Concertante K364, with Matthew Lipman, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and Sir Neville Marriner conducting. (Avie 2317) LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW

LISTEN TO THE EMILY REESE'S INTERVIEW WITH RBP I heard Rachel Barton Pine on New Classical Tracks one day, talking about Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. I was immediately drawn to her passion and knowledge about her instrument and the music she plays with it. She has a new recording out, and she joins Learning to Listen to speak about the five violin concertos that Mozart wrote. Mozart was a violin player, too, but his father, Leopold, nagged the young Wolfgang to practice a bit too much, and by the time Mozart was 20, he never wrote another solo concerto for violin. He stopped playing violin too, favoring the viola in his "later" years (he died when he was 35). Rachel talks about her love for Mozart, and introduces us to a young violist named Matthew Lipman. Matthew joins Rachel on the new recording to perform Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante, a double concerto for solo violin and viola. Rachel will be back next week to continue the conversation; we'll talk about cadenzas, and the famous Turkish influence in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5. Program Playlist WA Mozart Violin Concerto No. 2, 3rd movement Rachel Barton Pine, violin Neville Marriner, cond Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Avie 2317   WA Mozart Violin Concerto No. 1, 1st movement Rachel Barton Pine, violin Neville Marriner, cond Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Avie 2317   WA Mozart Sinfonia Concertante, 3rd movement Rachel Barton Pine, violin Neville Marriner, cond Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Avie 2317   WA Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4 Rachel Barton Pine, violin Neville Marriner, cond Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Avie 2317   WA Mozart Violin Concerto No. 1, 3rd movement Rachel Barton Pine, violin Neville Marriner, cond Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Avie 2317
Learning to Listen is a Syndicated Feature airing Nationally on Classical 24 & Statewide on Minnesota Public Radio

Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine performs the five Mozart Violin Concertos and the Sinfonia Concertante K364 with Sir Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St Martin in the Fields on her new AVIE CD. The two-album set which also features the recording debut of violist Matthew Lipman has been released in conjunction with Mozart's birthday on January 27. "She is one of the most honest of violin players I have ever heard.  And it's a great attraction in this [project], there is no utter embellishment, everything is there for a purpose and musically speaking it makes such good sense with her," said Sir Neville about the collaboration. Watch the RBP interview and performance on Arise TV -- syndicated on BET as well as 120 million homes in more than 50 countries all over the world from the United States and Europe to the Middle East and Africa.

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine's life is a seemingly unending list of extraordinary achievements, from her soloist debut at age 10 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to her recent live performances of Paganini's ‘24 Caprices For Solo Violin'--a series of virtuosic pieces so technically challenging that very few violinists perform them in sequence. She has published a book of her own arrangements and cadenzas, recorded 24 albums, and travelled with the world's most prestigious ensembles. Today sees the release of her latest album: a recording of Mozart's ‘Complete Violin Concertos' with the renowned Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and legendary, 90-year-old conductor Sir Neville Marriner.  READ THE FULL Daily Beast ARTICLE

In connection with Mozart's birthday on January 27, Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine debuts on AVIE records performing the five Mozart Violin Concertos and the Sinfonia Concertante K364 with Sir Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. The two-album set will be released January 13 and also features the recording debut of violist Matthew Lipman. "She is one of the most honest of violin players I have ever heard.  And it's a great attraction in this [project], there is no utter embellishment, everything is there for a purpose and musically speaking it makes such good sense with her," said Sir Neville about the collaboration.
  "I was elated to record Mozart's violin concertos with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.  I grew up on their performances, and working with them exceeded my expectations. Sir Neville's energy, focus and commitment to every detail of the music was incredibly inspiring," Pine says. RBP discusses the costs of being a musician with Bloomberg's Pimm Fox on "Taking Stock." WATCH THE VIDEO

In connection with Mozart's birthday on January 27, Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine debuts on AVIE records performing the five Mozart Violin Concertos and the Sinfonia Concertante K364 with Sir Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St Martin in the Fields  (AV 2317).  The two-album set will be released January 13 and also features the recording debut of violist Matthew Lipman. "She is one of the most honest of violin players I have ever heard.  And it's a great attraction in this [project], there is no utter embellishment, everything is there for a purpose and musically speaking it makes such good sense with her," said Sir Neville about the collaboration.  Rachel Barton Pine - Mozart Violin Concertos and the Sinfonia Concertante K364 is WCRB/WGBH 'CD Of the Week.'

Rachel Barton Pine was surrounded by young, Chicago musicians at Sherwood Park Fieldhouse in Englewood and CBS 2's Chicago - Dana Kozlov reports it is her way of giving back and sharing the art form she's been passionate about since age three. "It's so heartwarming to see kids from some of the Chicago neighborhoods that you always hear negative things that are doing something really positive," said Barton Pine. READ THE ARTICLE AND WATCH THE VIDEO

Saturday, May 10, at 8 p.m. at the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center, the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra wraps up its 2013-2014 season with a blockbuster performance, bringing together two of the great forces of the universe, violinist Rachel Barton Pine and Gustav Holst's The Planets.  SEE THE Wicked Local Rochester FEATURE

Rachel Barton Pine will be on Classical Classroom with Dacia Clay TODAY!! Friday, April 4th to teach all about the many different sounds of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor. Hear how violinists have interpreted the piece over the years, and learn why Rachel was dressed like a cowgirl.

Under the guidance of new artistic director Zuill Bailey, this year's The Northwest Bach Festival is growing up and out from five performances a year all in the majestic St. John's Cathedral, to now nearly a dozen, plus receptions and films in venues spread throughout the city of Spokane WA. On Feb. 28, Rachel Barton Pine will tackle Niccolo Paganini's 24 Caprices@Lincoln Center -1316 N Lincoln St, Spokane. Here's a schedule rundown. READ THE FULL Spokesman Review STORY   36th Annual Northwest Bach Festival ~ February 25 - March 9, 2014 Twilight Tour of Bach Suites at Historic Landmarks Zuill Bailey, cello  J.S. Bach's Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello Suites to be performed individually from six different historic landmark venues in Spokane.  The selected suite will be announced at each event and not in advance.  No-host wine bars at each venue. Doors open at 5:30pm except for Patsy Clark's opening at 6pm   Tuesday, February 25, 6pm-7pm  Barrister Winery, 1213 W. Railroad Ave. in Spokane  General Admission Tickets $20   Thursday, February 27, 6pm-7pm  Luxe Coffee House & Wine Bar Ballroom, 1017 W. 1st Ave. in Spokane  General Admission Tickets $20   Tuesday, March 4, 6pm-7pm Patsy Clark's Mansion, 2208 W 2nd Ave. in Spokane General Admission Tickets $20   Thursday, March 6, 6pm-7pm The Elizabethan Room, The Davenport Hotel, 10 S. Post St. in Spokane General Admission Tickets $20   Friday, March 7, 6pm-7pm The Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague Ave. in Spokane General Admission Tickets $20   Saturday, March 8, 6pm-7pm Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 1832 W. Dean Ave. in Spokane General Admission Tickets $20   Festival Classics Concerts Artistic Director Zuill Bailey will hold Concert Conversations 30 minutes before each concert.   Friday, February 28 at 8pm,  Rachel Barton Pine  Complete Paganini Caprices for Solo Violin  The Lincoln Center, 1316 N. Lincoln St. in Spokane.  General Admission Tickets $50/Students $25   Sunday, March 2 at 5pm  Piers Lane, piano  Complete Chopin Nocturnes by Candlelight  St. John’s Cathedral, 127 E. 12th Ave. at Grand Blvd. in Spokane.  General Admission Tickets $50/Students $25   Saturday, March 8 at 8pm  Lara Downes, piano  Bach to Brubeck  Barrister Winery, 1213 W. Railroad Ave. in Spokane General Admission Tickets $30/Students $15   Festival Finale Sunday, March 9 at 3pm  Zuill Bailey, cello, and Lara Downes, piano  Red, White, Blue & Sparkling-Made In America  All-American Concert and World Release of Zuill Bailey/Lara Downes CD, Some Other Time  St. John’s Cathedral, 127 E. 12th Ave. at Grand Blvd. in Spokane  General Admission Tickets $50/Students $25   Sunday, March 9, 6pm â€" 7:30pm  CD Release Party  Champagne Reception with Zuill Bailey and Lara Downes  Luna Garden Room, 5620 S. Perry St. in Spokane  $50 per person, includes autographed Some Other Time CD   Festival Film Classics Wednesday, February 26  The Red Violin shown at 7pm (131 minutes) (rated R)  NW Museum of Arts and Culture Auditorium, 2316 W. 1st Ave. in Spokane.  Free event   Wednesday, March 5  Double Feature Celebrating the Arts â€" film, food, wine, music, visual arts  A Matter of Taste: Serving Up Paul Liebrandt (68 minutes) (PG 13)  (2011 documentary introduced by filmmaker Sally Rowe) at 7pm Impromptu shown at 9pm (91 minutes) (PG 13) NW Museum of Arts and Culture Auditorium, 2316 W. 1st Ave. in Spokane. Free event   Special Festival Events Saturday, March 1, 8pm An Evening of Elegance with Navah Perlman, piano, and Zuill Bailey, cello Historic Kirtland Cutter Private Home
  Tuesday, March 4, 7pm Tasting Notes! A Celebration of Wine, Food and Music with Zuill Bailey and sommelier Ben Breen Adjudicated wine tasting followed by a multi-course dinner with wines Luna Garden Room, 5620 S. Perry St. in Spokane

Even though the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor has been part of Rachel Barton Pine's repertoire for most of her career, she's just now got around to recording it. On her latest recording, she pairs this famous German violin concerto with one that's rarely heard by Robert Schumann.

LISTEN TO Julie Amacher's Interview with Ms. Pine on PRI/C24 & Minnesota PR 'New Classical Tracks'

The Seattle Baroque Orchestra under the direction of  Rachel Barton Pine played the Early Music Guild's Town Hall program last Saturday evening, January 18, 2014.  Ms. Pine performed concertos for the viola d'amore, a seven-stringed cousin of the violin that reigned as a solo instrument during the 18th century.  Dresden Concertos features works by Vivaldi composed especially for the viola d'amore virtuoso Johann Georg Pisendel, concertos by Pisendel, a trio sonata by Telemann, and a concerto grosso by Handel. Baroque oboes and natural horns join the strings of Seattle Baroque Orchestra for this exciting performance. READ THE Seattle Times REVIEW.

Rachel Barton Pine has studied Alban Berg's Violin Concerto intensely since she was 16. The Violinist so adores the piece that she has worked on it with conductor Pierre Boulez, an expert on Berg, and Richard Hoffman, the last living student of Berg mentor Arnold Schoenberg. Pine rarely is asked to perform the 1935 concerto written in memory of Alma Mahler's daughter, making poignant use of a Bach chorale. That is, unless she's coming to Boulder. In what she calls a "random and wonderful" occurrence, Pine has been asked to play Berg's Violin Concerto for a second time in Boulder this coming Saturday night January 11 with the Boulder Philharmonic at Macky Auditorium. In 1999, she was requested to play the work with the Colorado Music Festival. The concerto Saturday night, the Boulder Phil's third subscription concert of the current season, is part of an interesting "Three B's" program assembled by Boulder Phil music director Michael Butterman. Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms typically are the "B's," but Butterman is replacing Beethoven with Berg. In addition short works by Bach and Mahler precede the concerto, and the program concludes with another piece imbued with the spirit, and the music, of Bach-Brahms' Symphony No. 4. READ THE Daily Camera ARTICLE

The wonderful violinist Rachel Barton Pine joins WGTE's Brad Cresswell TODAY!! Monday November 4th for a chat about her latest album, which includes violin concertos by Mendelssohn and Schumann, along with the violin romances of Beethoven.

WCLV Blurb: Here is another musician who appeared in Cleveland this fall: violinist Rachel Barton Pine helped open the CityMusic season in October playing all five Mozart concertos. Ms. Barton Pine told me during her recent visit to WCLV, "For the majority of my career, I had not been drawn to play Schumann's concerto, but my opinion changed four years ago when I studied the score closely and collaborated with Maestro Mueller. His detailed and imaginative shaping of the orchestral accompaniment brought the music to life, and I was inspired to find new beauty in the solo violin part." Hear the fruits of that partnership on this new WCLV: 'Choice CD' for November!

This week's program celebrates Halloween with 8 spooky selections, including 3 from Rachel Barton Pine's classic Instrument of the Devil album. Here's the Playlist for October 30, 2013 / Halloween. CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS (1835–1921)
Danse Macabre, Op. 40 (7:07)
From Instrument of the Devil
Cedille Records CDR 90000 041 (Track 1)
Rachel Barton Pine, violin
Patrick Sinozich, piano
  CESAR FRANCK (1822–1890)
Pièce Héroïque (7:00)
From Organ Masterpieces by Franck & Dupré
Cedille Records CDR 90000 015 (Track 4)
David Schrader, organ
  EASLEY BLACKWOOD (b. 1933)
Twelve Microtonal Etudes for Electronic Music Media, Op. 28
15 notes. Lento (3:35)
From Easley Blackwood: Microtonal
Cedille Records CDR 90000 018 (Track 7)
Easley Blackwood, polyfusion synthesizer JAAKKO MANTYJARVI (b. 1963)
Double, Double, Toil and Trouble (2:57) from Four Shakespeare Songs
From Shall I Compare Thee? - Choral Songs on Shakespeare Texts
Cedille Records CDR 90000 085 (Track 5)
Chicago a cappella ROBERT APPLEBAUM (b. 1941)
Witches' Blues (4:53)
From Shall I Compare Thee? - Choral Songs on Shakespeare Texts
Cedille Records CDR 90000 085 (Track 22)
Chicago a cappella HECTOR BERLIOZ (1803–1869) / tr. PINE-SINOZICH
Dream of a Witches Sabbath from Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14 (10:51)
From Instrument of the Devil
Cedille Records CDR 90000 041 (Track 7)
Rachel Barton Pine, violin
Patrick Sinozich, piano FRANZ LISZT (1811–1886)
Mephisto Waltz for Two Pianos (11:18)
From Liszt for Two
Cedille Records CDR 90000 052 (Track 7)
Georgia & Louise Mangos, duo-pianists MANUEL DE FALLA (1876–1946) / tr. KOCHANSKI
Dance of Terror from El Amor Brujo (2:11)
From Instrument of the Devil
Cedille Records CDR 90000 041 (Track 8)
Rachel Barton Pine, violin
Patrick Sinozich, piano

Internationally acclaimed as an interpreter of the masterpieces of the violin repertoire, Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine performs early Romantic concertos by Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann with Christoph-Mathias Mueller conducting Germany's Göttinger Symphonie Orchester on the new album Mendelssohn & Schumann Violin Concertos (Cedille Records CDR 90000 144). Following critically praised and commercially successful recordings of the violin concertos of Brahms and Beethoven, this album features Pine interpreting two more major works of the violin literature. Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64, has been a favorite of audiences and violinists alike since its premiere in 1845. In contrast, Schumann's late concerto, his last major composition, had to wait until 1937 to receive its world premiere. Written in 1853, it was long suppressed by Schumann's pianist wife, Clara, and violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim, for whom it was written. It has only recently been established as an important work in the repertoire, and Pine describes it as "a deeply satisfying concerto that well deserves repeated hearings." The album, to be released as a digital download on September 3 and on CD September 24, also includes both of Beethoven's Romances for violin and orchestra: No. 1 in G Major, Op. 40; and No. 2 in F Major, Op. 50. The Mendelssohn Violin Concerto is one of the most frequently performed and most recorded works in the repertoire.  "Pine brings it to life with a fresh and vibrant interpretation that is uniquely personal while remaining true to Mendelssohn's score," says Cedille President James Ginsburg.       Of a Pine performance of the Mendelssohn with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Tribune said, "The Mendelssohn is one of those fiddle war horses that every young soloist plays but few can play as beautifully as [Pine]. Without resorting to any musical distortion, she invested the thrice-familiar phrases with a lyrical grace that seemed newly minted.  The commanding ease with which she applied fingers and horsehair to the breathless roulades and passage work of the finale was enough to put the crowd in her thrall. . . ." Pine describes Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto as "a lifelong friend." One of the first major Romantic violin concertos she learned as a child, it remains among the works she performs most frequently.  "When I meet fans after a concert, I'm constantly asked to record it," Pine shares.  As a result, she felt that the Mendelssohn was the obvious choice for the next major German concerto to record.  While Pine continues striving to realize an "unachievable ideal" embodied in the work, she feels that her journey with the concerto over the past three decades has brought significant insights.  "I have become increasingly convinced that the Mendelssohn benefits from tempi that are flowing rather than expansive, paired with judicious rubato and a lightness of touch," she writes. Neither a purely Classical-style concerto nor a full-fledged Romantic work, it calls for what she describes as "the perfect balance between warmth and tasteful purity." The Mendelssohn holds "a special place in my heart," says Pine. "People like to believe that great sorrow is necessary to create great art, but Mendelssohn's music proves that great joy can be just as profound." The collaboration between Mueller and Pine was an outgrowth of Pine's Cedille recording of Joachim's Violin Concerto No. 2 in D Minor and Johannes Brahms's Violin Concerto in D major with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Carlos Kalmar.  Mueller, impressed with the recording, invited her to perform the same Joachim concerto in Göttingen. The performance was a triumph. Consequently, Mueller invited Pine to perform the Schumann Concerto with him in 2010, even though the piece was not in her repertoire at the time. In the course of her career, Pine hadn't given much thought to the Schumann Concerto.  "I have a tremendous respect for Maestro Mueller and generally share his musical tastes," Pine writes in the CD booklet. "I also knew that many people regard the Schumann Concerto highly, so I agreed to do it." "Studying the piece closely and collaborating with Maestro Mueller was a revelation," Pine explains.  Mueller's "detailed and imaginative shaping of the orchestral accompaniment brought the music to life … Against this backdrop, I was inspired to find new beauty in the solo violin part," she writes. The Schumann Concerto requires conductor and orchestra to bring out "dynamic nuances and poetry" that aren't obvious in the score, Pine said in her Cedille interview. "Of all the concertos I've performed, the Schumann is the most dependent on the orchestral playing for a successful performance."  Of that first concert, Pine wrote "The musical experience was so profound that I left the stage determined to record it with Maestro Mueller." Pine believes that Schumann's rapidly deteriorating health after completing the Concerto prevented the collaborative process of revisions that typically occurs between composer and dedicatee.  She believes Joachim was so affected by the mental illness of his close friend that he chose to suppress the work rather than make unilateral revisions to the solo part. As a result, the scoring of the solo part presents a variety of challenges, especially in the last movement, where "the technical demands . . . necessitate a slower tempo that results in a stodgy feeling," Pine writes in the CD booklet. "Increasing the tempo to fit the music renders certain passages unplayable." Pine addressed these issues by making numerous "minor changes to various notes and bowings" throughout the score.  Pine writes that her decisions were "always guided by the principle of WWJD - What Would Joachim Do?"   Pine, who has intensely studied Joachim's own concerto writing and his suggested revisions to the Brahms Violin Concerto, says she "tried to find the solutions that Joachim might have suggested to Schumann had he had the opportunity."            The Beethoven Romances were added to the project at the suggestion of producer Steven Epstein when it became evident that the sessions were running significantly ahead of schedule. Pine writes that "the spare orchestration and chamber-like integration with the solo part of these beautiful pieces made it a special pleasure to collaborate with Maestro Mueller on interpretive details." Mendelssohn and Schumann Violin Concertos was recorded August 28–30, 2012, in the Stadhalle Göttingen by multiple Grammy-winning producer Steven Epstein and Cedille's chief recording engineer Bill Malone.  Thanks to the generous loan from her patron, Pine performs on the 1742 "ex-Soldat" Guarneri del Gesu violin, crafted in Cremona.

Rachel Barton Pine's Mendelssohn & Schumann: Violin Concertos and Beethoven Romances is this week's New Release Of the Week@WFMT in Chicago.

On Sunday, February 17th, 2013, Chamber Music in Oklahoma presented the third of their concerts this season featuring guest violinist Rachel Barton Pine and guest pianist Matthew Hagle.  These two artists, who both live in Chicago and often play together, offered a recital of richly varied repertoire for violin and piano.  The program opens with Ludwig van Beethoven's Sonata in E-flat Major, Op 12, No. 3, a work of grandeur and power not often found in pieces from the composer's early years. Tune in to 'Performance Oklahoma' Tonight: Saturday July 27@8p.

Tune in to Rachel Barton Pine on the: Whitney Reynolds Show / this morning Sunday, July 14th@at 5a and 11a.

Rachel Barton Pine discussing her life and new CD! Sunday @   5:00 am on WTTW 11 / WTTW HD
Sunday @ 11:00 am on WTTW PRIME

Stay Thirsty recently heard Rachel Barton Pine's: Violin Lullabies, and said it was a marvelous collection of twenty-five short works either composed or arranged/transcribed for violin and piano. Some are very familiar e.g., Brahms' famous "Cradle Song," or Gershwin's "Summertime." Others are certainly well-known from the standard repertoire, and a few were absolute "discoveries" for me by composers of whom I had never heard. READ MORE

Check out this Mojo.com video perf and chat with Violinist Rachel Barton Pine. This child prodigy who started played at the age of three and made her solo debut at age seven, has worked with some of the greatest names in Classical Music including: Erich Leinsdorf, Placido Domingo and Charles Dutoit to name a few. Hailed as the most charismatic, the most virtuosic, and the most compelling American violinist of her generation, Ms. Pine can also reel off a list of her favorite rock bands -- AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Anthrax, Metallica, Pantera, Van Halen, Slayer and Megadeth, and can talk about these bands as readily. She also sees the connecting threads in these very disparate musical forms making a connecting bridge between generations of music fans.

Inspired by the birth of her daughter, Rachel Barton Pine collected more than 150 lullabies and picked her favorite 25 for her new album, 'Violin Lullabies.' Inspired by art, history, and the everyday mother and child family ritual RBP, joined by the wonderful pianist Matthew Hagle have recorded pieces by Ravel, Schubert, Gershwin and Brahms with RBP's violin, hand-picked by Brahms for a student of his day. In its first week of release, 'Violin Lullabies' ascended to:
#1 on Amazon Children's Music
#2 on iTunes Classical Chart
#2 Amazon Classical Music Radio has also responded with great enthisiasm to the CD  with an 'NPR: All Things Considered,' a Bob Edwards Morning Show feature on Sirius XM, on American Public Media's Performance Today, on Minnesota Public Radio's 'New Classical Tracks', WTTW-TV's Chicago Tonight', WGN: Chicago/'Music Lounge', Public Radio International's 'The Record Shelf' Additional Interviews and Features have been airing on the following local stations to promote the album leading into Mother's Day on May 12 2013. WQXR: New York
WFMT: Chicago
WRTI: Philadelphia
KDFC: San Francisco
WQED: Pittsburgh
WRCJ: Detroit
WICR: Indianapolis
WKNO: Memphis
Texas Public Radio
New Jersey Net: Statewide
Kansas PR: Statewide
Alabama PR: Statewide
WNED: Buffalo/NY
WCPE: Wake Forest/NC
WDAV: Davidson/NC
WGTE: Toledo/OH
KBAQ: Tempe/AZ
WFIU: Bloomington/IN
WIAA: Interlochen/MI
WFSU: Tallahassee/FL
KBIA: Columbia/MO
WBAA: West Lafayette/IN
KRCB: Rohnert Park/CA
In-Flight Airline programming via Spafax

In its first week of CD release, Rachel Barton Pine's VIOLIN LULLABIES is:
#1 on Amazon Children's Music
#2 on iTunes Classical Chart
#2 Amazon Classical Music Inspired by the birth of her daughter, Rachel collected more than 150 lullabies and picked her favorite 25 for the album.?inspired by art, history and how this music has become an everyday family ritual, RBP plays these?pieces by?Ravel, Schubert, Gershwin and Brahms on a violin hand-picked by Brahms for a student of his day.
Listen?to NPR: All Things Considered

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine discusses music, motherhood and her new album: Violin Lullabies on Chicago Tonight/WTTW 11. The segment Includes a performance of Wiegenlied (Cradle Song) by Max Reger with pianist Matthew Hagle.

With Rachel Barton Pine on Violin and Matthew Hagle on Piano, VIOLIN LULLABIES features lullabies by some of the world's greatest composers including: Schubert, Faure, Strauss, Ravel, Gershwin and Brahms. With 22 CDs under her belt and a thriving career, Pine who the the New York Times calls "a greatly gifted violinist" is a now also a recent mother who was so inspired by the birth of her child that she decided to record the 'definitive lullabies' CD. "While the birth of my first child inspired this album, the idea of deeply exploring the lullaby as a genre has fascinated me for some time. These are beautiful concert pieces which allowed me to express the love that fills my heart each day that I spend with my precious baby." I wanted it to be organic and authentic, not dumbed down or jazzed up. These are just beautiful pieces of music, pure and simple.
Rachel Barton Pine The album is a hit at Radio with lots of airplay and Mothers Day promos. Stations are also using for their fund drives and seems like an item listeners want. On April 23 & 24 RBP spoke with Radio Stations and Networks about 'Violin Lullabies.' Performance Today: Syndicated
SiriusXM: Direct
Spafax: In-Flight
WFMT: Chicago
WRTI: Philadelphia
WQED: Pittsburgh
Minnesota PR: Network
WRCJ: Detroit
WICR: Indianapolis
KPAC: San Antonio
New Jersey Net: Statewide
Kansas PR: Statewide
Alabama PR: Statewide
WNED: Buffalo
WCPE: Wake Forest/NC
WDAV: Davidson/NC
WKAR: Lansing/MI
WGTE: Toledo/OH
WFIU: Bloomington/IN
WIAA: Interlochen/MI
WFSU: Tallahassee/FL
KBIA: Columbia/MO

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine's: Capricho Latino, takes listeners on a rare tour of Latin-flavored music strictly for solo violin, with 14 works from the late-Romantic era to the present day by composers from Latin America, Spain, and elsewhere in Europe, including eight compositions and arrangements recorded for the very first time.

Any album of solo instrumental music subjects itself to a higher degree of vulnerability, for the artist must stand alone on his/her performance for the duration of the CD. Rachel Barton Pine succeeds brilliantly on these pieces for the solo violin (and narrator, as with Ferdinand the Bull), most of which have a Latin flavor. READ MORE from her 'allmusic' review. WFMT's Fiesta had RBP and Elbio into their Chicago studio to introduce the new album released by Cedille Records.

American violinist Rachel Barton Pine and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Jose Serebrier perform the world-premiere recording of a fabled and long-lost masterwork of the late Classical era - Franz Clement's Violin Concerto in D (1805) coupled with a centerpiece of the violin repertoire on which it sheds new light Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D, Op. 61 (1806) on a new release from Cedille Records.

Beethoven & Clement Violin Concertos is a two-CD set priced as a single disc (Cedille Records 90000 106). Beethoven and Clement were contemporaries who enjoyed a close musical relationship. The pairing of the two concertos "sets Beethoven's masterpiece in an entirely new context," Pine says.

The performance of the Clement concerto is based on the first and only modern edition of the score, edited by Clive Brown and published in 2005. Clement's concerto had not been publicly performed in nearly 200 years.

Brown makes the case that although Clement's concerto is harmonically anchored in the musical world of Mozart, many elements make it the direct predecessor of Beethoven's, which, until now, appeared to exist in a mysterious, stylistic isolation from other compositions of its day. It's the missing link in an evolutionary timeline. This argument is strengthened by new information documenting the close artistic collaboration and mutual admiration between the two composers.

Similarities between the concertos include the general character of the violin writing, the treatment of the solo instrument, instrumentation, and the unusual expansiveness in the individual movements, which was characteristic of a specific type of Viennese concerto. "There are even many individual figurations in Beethoven's Violin Concerto that appear to allude directly to passages in Clement's concerto," Brown writes.

As a violinist, Clement (1780–1842) eschewed the muscular, assertive, big-toned playing in vogue at the time.  In 1805, a reviewer for a Leipzig music journal called Clement's playing "indescribably delicate, neat and elegant; it has an extremely delightful tenderness and cleanness that undoubtedly secures him a place among the most perfect violinists."

Brown observes that these same characteristics are apparent in the solo violin part of Clement's concerto, which had its premiere in 1805 at the same concert where Beethoven (1770–1827) conducted the first fully public performance of his "Eroica" symphony.

The following year, Clement conducted and performed as solo violinist in the premiere of Beethoven's violin concerto, written expressly for him. Beethoven extensively revised the score prior to its publication in 1808.  In his essay, Brown explains how "recently uncovered evidence suggests Clement's role in crafting the final version of Beethoven's concerto may have been greater than supposed."

The recording features Ms. Pine's own ingenious and meticulously integrated cadenzas. Beethoven, a pianist, never wrote violin cadenzas to the concerto, but he did write piano cadenzas when he transcribed the work for his own instrument.  Unlike virtually every other violinist who has written solo passages for this work, Ms. Pine looked to Beethoven's piano cadenza as her point of departure.  As a result, her first-movement cadenza begins by referencing the bold motif in the orchestra following the conclusions of the exposition and recapitulation rather than starting with a variation of the solo violin's first entrance, as is often the case.

"I chose to start my cadenza with this same motif, employing my own choice of harmonies," she writes in the CD booklet.  As a unifying element, she makes deft and frequent use of the four repeated notes prominently featured in the first movement. This pattern even makes a brief appearance at the end of her cadenza for the final movement, bringing the musical idea full circle.

Ms. Pine takes a Classical-period approach to the Beethoven Violin Concerto.  Reviewing a 2006 performance of the Beethoven Concerto that Ms. Pine gave in New England, a newspaper critic noted her "scrupulous attention to Beethoven's intentions heightened and shaped by a gentle romantic sentiment all her own. . . . Pine played Beethoven's music with profound regard for every brick of its architecture and every beat of its heart."

The initial impetus for the CD was a phone call Ms. Pine received in 2006 from the owner of her favorite sheet-music store, Chicago's Performers Music.  Knowing Ms. Pine's fascination with lesser-known historic repertoire, the store's proprietor, Lee Newcomer, alerted her to Professor Brown's newly published edition of Clement's concerto.

"It took only one glance to know that I had found something special," she writes in her preface to the CD liner notes. "It is an excellent composition, but what really startled me were the aesthetic similarities to Beethoven's masterpiece."

Ms. Pine mentioned her idea for a Beethoven-Clement recording to Maestro Serebrier, one of her colleagues on the Sphinx Competition jury.  Sharing Ms. Pine's enthusiasm, he approached the Royal Philharmonic, with whom he has a close relationship, and the pieces fell into place.  Cedille Records' president, James Ginsburg, was quick to embrace the idea.

This is Ms. Pine's tenth recording for Cedille Records and marks the Cedille label debut of both Maestro Serebrier and the Royal Philharmonic. Hailed by Gramophone magazine as "a magnetically imaginative artist," Rachel Barton Pine has received worldwide acclaim for her profound and thoughtful interpretations of an extremely diverse repertoire, performed with intensity and enthusiasm. She has appeared as soloist with many of the world's most prestigious ensembles and has worked closely with conductors such as Marin Alsop, Charles Dutoit, Zubin Mehta, Erich Leinsdorf, Neeme J?rvi, and Semyon Bychkov.  Notable collaborations include pairings with Daniel Barenboim, Christoph Eschenbach, and William Warfield, among others. Her Web site iswww.rachelbartonpine.com.

Recently hailed by Gramophone magazine ("It would be hard to imagine more sumptuous discs. Jos? Serebrier conducts thrilling, passionate performances with orchestral sound of demonstration quality"), conductor and composer Jos? Serebrier is one of today's most-recorded classical artists, amassing 34 Grammy nominations and the Latin Grammy for Best Record of the Year (for the Bizet-Serebrier "Carmen Symphony"). He was associate conductor with Leopold Stokowski at Carnegie Hall for five years, and at age 21 was hailed by Stokowski as "the greatest master of orchestral balance."  He served for several seasons as Composer-in-Residence of the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell and has made international tours with the Juilliard Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Toulouse Chamber Orchestra, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Serebrier recorded with the New York Philharmonic, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Philharmonia, and most major orchestras in the UK, Europe and Asia. The French music critic Michael Faure recently wrote a new book about Jose Serebrier, published in France by L'Harmattan and soon to be published in several languages including English, German, and Spanish. His Web site is www.joseserebrier.com.

One of the world's most widely recorded orchestras, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1946 to bring performances of the highest caliber to audiences throughout England. Its conductors have included Rudolf Kempe, Antal Dorati, Andre Previn, and Vladimir Ashkenazy.