2023 MMC MASTA SESSION HEADLINERS
MASTA – Michigan Chapter of the American String Teachers Association
Photo credit: Lisa-Marie Mazzucco
Rachel Barton Pine
Heralded as 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, Pine transforms audiences’ experiences of classical music.
Pine performs with the world’s leading orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, and the Chicago, Vienna, and Detroit Symphony Orchestras. She has worked with renowned conductors, including Teddy Abrams, Marin Alsop, Semyon Bychkov, Neeme Järvi, Erich Leinsdorf, Nicholas McGegan, Zubin Mehta, Tito Muñoz, and John Nelson.
She frequently performs music by contemporary composers, including major works written for her by Billy Childs, Mohammed Fairouz, Marcus Goddard, Earl Maneein, Shawn E. Okpebholo, Daniel Bernard Roumain, José Serebrier, and Augusta Read Thomas. In addition to her career as a soloist, she is an avid performer of baroque, renaissance, and medieval music on baroque violin, viola d’amore, renaissance violin, and rebec.
She has appeared on The Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning, CNN, PBS NewsHour, A Prairie Home Companion, and NPR’s Tiny Desk, and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and New York Times.
Last season, Rachel amazed fans worldwide, when with just 3 1/2 hours notice, she stepped in at Ravinia, to perform Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Maestra Marin Alsop conducting, when the soloist Midori had to pull out at the last minute due to illness.
She has recorded 40 acclaimed albums, many of which have hit the top of the charts. In September 2022, Cedille Records releases her Violin Concertos by Black Composers Through the Centuries: 25th Anniversary Edition, which features a new recording of Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra & Jonathon Heyward.
She holds prizes from several of the world’s leading competitions, including a gold medal at the 1992 J.S. Bach International Violin Competition in Leipzig, Germany.
Her RBP Foundation assists young artists through its Instrument Loan Program and Grants for Education and Career, and since 2001, has run the groundbreaking Music by Black Composers project.
Sessions:
MASTA Headliner #1 – Favorite Warm-ups from the Vamos Tradition- Friday, 2:00 PM – 2:45 PM
MASTA Headliner #2 – Music by Black Composers: A Treasure Trove for Expanding Your Repertoire- Friday, 3:00 PM – 3:45 PM
MASTA Headliner #3 – Improv Games for Everyone – Saturday, 11:00 AM – 11:45 AM
MASTA Headliner #4 – From Fydell to Violin: The Amazing History of String Instruments- Saturday, 3:00 PM – 3:45 PM