Strings: Heavy Metal Meets Classical: Rachel Barton Pine Finds a Common Ground
Stickers for Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax are emblazoned on the case that contains Rachel Barton Pine’s signature “ex-Bazzini, ex-Soldat” Joseph Guarneri del Gesù from 1742. The charismatic violinist doesn’t just defy categories. Her life as an artist is fueled by omnivorous curiosity, which Pine combines with searing musical intelligence and an impeccable virtuosity—all in the service of finding a deep connection to her audience.
The span of Pine’s interests reinforces the inadequacy of the catch-all label “classical music.” Her commitment to early music alone ranges from the medieval period to rediscovered gems of the Baroque. Pine, who celebrates her milestone 50th birthday later this year, has recorded acclaimed interpretations of standard classical repertoire but is also an avid champion of contemporary composers. Her prolific discography, which comprises more than 30 albums to date, additionally documents the violinist’s passion for Chicago blues, Scottish fiddling, and heavy metal.
Strings
By Thomas May
Stickers for Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax are emblazoned on the case that contains Rachel Barton Pine’s signature “ex-Bazzini, ex-Soldat” Joseph Guarneri del Gesù from 1742. The charismatic violinist doesn’t just defy categories. Her life as an artist is fueled by omnivorous curiosity, which Pine combines with searing musical intelligence and an impeccable virtuosity—all in the service of finding a deep connection to her audience.
The span of Pine’s interests reinforces the inadequacy of the catch-all label “classical music.” Her commitment to early music alone ranges from the medieval period to rediscovered gems of the Baroque. Pine, who celebrates her milestone 50th birthday later this year, has recorded acclaimed interpretations of standard classical repertoire but is also an avid champion of contemporary composers. Her prolific discography, which comprises more than 30 albums to date, additionally documents the violinist’s passion for Chicago blues, Scottish fiddling, and heavy metal.
Read more here.
Strings: New Dover Quartet Violist Julianne Lee Describes ‘Natural Synergy’ with Founding Members
Beginning in September 2023, Julianne Lee, currently assistant principal second violin of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and principal second violin with the Boston Pops, will take up her new role as violist of the Dover Quartet. She will join the founding members—violinists Joel Link and Bryan Lee and cellist Camden Shaw—and replace Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, who left last August.
Lee began playing viola during her third year at Curtis, when she learned about Curtis’ Viola for Violinists program. The program led her to continue viola studies while she pursued her master’s degree at New England Conservatory, studying with violist Kim Kashkashian. Lee has since forged a career as both a violinist and violist, frequently appearing as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player.
Strings
By Laurence Vittes
Beginning in September 2023, Julianne Lee, currently assistant principal second violin of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and principal second violin with the Boston Pops, will take up her new role as violist of the Dover Quartet. She will join the founding members—violinists Joel Link and Bryan Lee and cellist Camden Shaw—and replace Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, who left last August.
Lee began playing viola during her third year at Curtis, when she learned about Curtis’ Viola for Violinists program. The program led her to continue viola studies while she pursued her master’s degree at New England Conservatory, studying with violist Kim Kashkashian. Lee has since forged a career as both a violinist and violist, frequently appearing as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player.
Read more here.
Strings: Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers Continues Passionate Advocacy of New Music with Recent Concerto Commission Inspired by Amelia Earhart
For a good two decades, Anne Akiko Meyers has made it a hallmark of her artistic mission to expand the literature for her instrument by inviting living composers to write something new—and then championing the results with total commitment. It’s an undertaking not recommended for the risk averse. While playing the mainstream repertoire entails having a tradition to fall back on whenever doubts arise, being the first to introduce a composition to the public can resemble setting out on a tightrope walk without a safety net.
This intrepid attitude makes Meyers an ideal advocate for Michael Daugherty’s new violin concerto, Blue Electra, which is inspired by the legacy of the boldly adventurous aviatrix Amelia Earhart. From November 10–12 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Meyers will give the work its world premiere with the National Symphony Orchestra led by Gianandrea Noseda.
Strings Magazine
By Thomas May
November-December 2022 issue of Strings Magazine
For a good two decades, Anne Akiko Meyers has made it a hallmark of her artistic mission to expand the literature for her instrument by inviting living composers to write something new—and then championing the results with total commitment. It’s an undertaking not recommended for the risk averse. While playing the mainstream repertoire entails having a tradition to fall back on whenever doubts arise, being the first to introduce a composition to the public can resemble setting out on a tightrope walk without a safety net.
This intrepid attitude makes Meyers an ideal advocate for Michael Daugherty’s new violin concerto, Blue Electra, which is inspired by the legacy of the boldly adventurous aviatrix Amelia Earhart. From November 10–12 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Meyers will give the work its world premiere with the National Symphony Orchestra led by Gianandrea Noseda.
Read more here.
Photo Credits: Molina Visuals (Top); Kaupo Kikkas (Cover)
Strings: Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers Looks to the Stars on New Album ‘Shining Night’
It started with verse. Virtuoso violinist Anne Akiko Meyers’ latest album, Shining Night (Avie), is based on a poem by the late American writer James Agee and describes a man going on a walk and thinking back over his life. “That scenario inspired this collection of pieces that metaphorically begins in the morning and explores the vast musical history through Baroque, Romantic, popular, and current genres,” she notes. “The common themes throughout the music reflect on one’s relationship with nature, love, and poetry.”
Strings Magazine
By Greg Cahill
It started with verse. Virtuoso violinist Anne Akiko Meyers’ latest album, Shining Night (Avie), is based on a poem by the late American writer James Agee and describes a man going on a walk and thinking back over his life. “That scenario inspired this collection of pieces that metaphorically begins in the morning and explores the vast musical history through Baroque, Romantic, popular, and current genres,” she notes. “The common themes throughout the music reflect on one’s relationship with nature, love, and poetry.”
In keeping with the stunningly beautiful album’s starry theme, Shining Night was released on May 7—International Astronomy Day. "When I visited Wyoming recently, my family and I went stargazing,” Meyers explains.
Read more here.
Strings Magazine: A String Player's Guide to New York City
Even the most jaded New Yorkers cherish iconic New York City moments—walking in Central Park, sitting by the Lincoln Center fountain, savoring a pizza at Grimaldi’s. But the reason string players love Gotham goes further, to its constant embrace of new experiences—performance venues, chamber ensembles, jam sessions. Here are some of the myriad venues, ensembles, restaurants, and cultural institutions that make this musical city great.
Strings Magazine
By Brian Wise
Even the most jaded New Yorkers cherish iconic New York City moments—walking in Central Park, sitting by the Lincoln Center fountain, savoring a pizza at Grimaldi’s. But the reason string players love Gotham goes further, to its constant embrace of new experiences—performance venues, chamber ensembles, jam sessions. Here are some of the myriad venues, ensembles, restaurants, and cultural institutions that make this musical city great.
Read more here.
Photo: Stephan Kelle
Strings Magazine: The Savannah and Sun Valley Music Festivals Ready the Stage for Live Concerts
As the largest admission-free classical music festival in the United States, Idaho’s Sun Valley Music Festival promises this year’s attendees a “massive orchestral repertoire as vast as Sun Valley’s mountainous setting.”
That’s a lofty promise but given the festival’s 37-year performance record, it’s a commitment that seems achievable over the three-week event. Kicking off in late July, the festival offers 14 concerts, a gala fundraising concert, and multiple educational events.
Strings Magazine
By Karen Peterson
Sun Valley Music Festival
As the largest admission-free classical music festival in the United States, Idaho’s Sun Valley Music Festival promises this year’s attendees a “massive orchestral repertoire as vast as Sun Valley’s mountainous setting.”
That’s a lofty promise but given the festival’s 37-year performance record, it’s a commitment that seems achievable over the three-week event. Kicking off in late July, the festival offers 14 concerts, a gala fundraising concert, and multiple educational events.
Read more here.
Strings Magazine: The Juilliard String Quartet Remains at the Nexus of Continuity and Change as it Celebrates Its 75th Anniversary
The endurance of the Juilliard String Quartet (JSQ) seems to offer a potent antidote to the sense of impending disruption and uncertainty that has crept into just about every aspect of musical life. This longevity shines a beacon of hope, enhancing the sense of celebration around the internationally acclaimed ensemble’s 75th anniversary this season.
Strings Magazine
By Thomas May
The endurance of the Juilliard String Quartet (JSQ) seems to offer a potent antidote to the sense of impending disruption and uncertainty that has crept into just about every aspect of musical life. This longevity shines a beacon of hope, enhancing the sense of celebration around the internationally acclaimed ensemble’s 75th anniversary this season.
Among the plans is a concert on November 30 at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center titled “Cavatina,” which presents a new commission series from the prolific German composer Jörg Widmann, whose work will interact with Beethovenian models. This will be juxtaposed with Beethoven’s late String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major. The ensemble will perform both finales the composer fashioned for Op. 130, including the Grosse Fuge originally intended as the capstone. This dual focus on core classic repertoire and new creation has consistently been part of the JSQ’s DNA.
Read more here.
Strings: Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers & Guitarist Jason Vieaux Play the Green Center
Meyers floated in, 1741 “Vieuxtemps” del Gesù in hand, wearing a voluminous gown in a soft black, its overlaid geometric pattern a seeming nod to the hall’s distinctive woodwork. Vieaux, also in black, took his seat and with a quick smile between them, they jumped into the music. An arrangement of Arcangelo Corelli’s Sonata in D minor, Op. 5, No. 12, “La Folia,” with variations headed the program. Fleet fingerwork in both instruments marked the players as virtuosos, but the variations that showcased the artists at their best allowed Vieaux to indulge in a little head bobbing, as he navigated his guitar with astonishing ease, and Meyers to pull a sultry voice from her del Gesù.
Strings Magazine
Megan Westberg
Meyers floated in, 1741 “Vieuxtemps” del Gesù in hand, wearing a voluminous gown in a soft black, its overlaid geometric pattern a seeming nod to the hall’s distinctive woodwork. Vieaux, also in black, took his seat and with a quick smile between them, they jumped into the music. An arrangement of Arcangelo Corelli’s Sonata in D minor, Op. 5, No. 12, “La Folia,” with variations headed the program. Fleet fingerwork in both instruments marked the players as virtuosos, but the variations that showcased the artists at their best allowed Vieaux to indulge in a little head bobbing, as he navigated his guitar with astonishing ease, and Meyers to pull a sultry voice from her del Gesù.
Read more here.
Strings: Shanghai Orchestra Academy Taps International Principal Players in Cutting-Edge Curriculum
The Shanghai Orchestra Academy (SOA) launched in 2014, offering professional training along with a master’s degree in music curriculum (from the nearby Shanghai Conservatory of Music). There is a heavy emphasis on internships with professional orchestras.
Strings
Cristina Schreil
The Shanghai Orchestra Academy (SOA) launched in 2014, offering professional training along with a master’s degree in music curriculum (from the nearby Shanghai Conservatory of Music). There is a heavy emphasis on internships with professional orchestras. The academy is also a joint effort between the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and Germany’s NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester. Principals comprise the faculty. The rigorous two-year program is the brainchild of Chinese maestro Long Yu. While SOA is international, its origins are very much homegrown. It rose from a booming classical-music movement sweeping China: In the past 20 years, the number of Chinese orchestras jumped from around ten to 72. Naturally, this proliferation demands skilled players. Maestro Yu dreamed of an epicenter for training the next generation.
Read more here.
Strings: Cellist Julian Schwarz on Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1
Laurence Vittes connects with Julian Schwarz about getting the upper hand on Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1.
Strings
Laurence Vittes
Photo Credit: Matt Dine
Dmitri Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 107, was composed in 1959 for his friend Mstislav Rostropovich, who committed it to memory in four days and gave the premiere with Yevgeny Mravinsky conducting the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra in the Large Hall of the Leningrad Conservatory.
It has attained mainstream popularity—more than 60 recordings fill the catalogue including five different performances by Rostropovich himself. Julian Schwarz has not recorded the concerto—yet—but he performed it with the Tucson Symphony in January, and will play it twice this fall, in Lake Forest, Illinois, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In other words, he’s all pumped up for Shostakovich.
In addition to being a virtuoso cellist, Schwarz likes to interact with his audiences—to find out what they feel, what captures their attention, what stands out as “formidable.” After he finished a 30-minute Shostakovich workout in Tucson, Arizona, he returned to the stage and recounted a master class he had led at the University of Arizona earlier in the day, then played five minutes of Bach for an encore.
Click here to read the interview.