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sical music with as many people as she possibly
can. She plays her violin at rock music stations and
public schools. She would also like to commission
classical pieces that use elements of heavy metal as
building blocks—a notion not so far off, as scholars
such as Sandy Pearlman, a McGill professor and the
man who coined the term ‘heavy metal,’ has
already linked the two genres by tracing heavy
metal’s roots to late Romantic composers.
Pine’s eponymous foundation to help young
artists was inspired by her rough upbringing. “I
grew up in a financially struggling household,”
Pine explained.“It was always a challenge for us to
pay our rent and utilities every month and have
enough money for groceries. The idea of trying to
pay for music lessons was really out of the question.”
Her needs inspired her to work hard so as to
continue receiving scholarships and instrument
loans. She played weddings and other events to
make money for her family, and when she was 16
she took a position with the Grant Symphony
Orchestra and subbed for other orchestras in
order to save up money.
“It was always a hope that I could pay my piano
accompanist, get my bow rehaired, and buy sheet
music for the next concerto that I’d been assigned.
So I started my foundation to help kids who in a
similar situation,” Pine said. “As far as I’m able to
tell, we are running the only program of this kind.”
The foundation supports aspiring musicians not
only through lessons and instrument loans but
also by paying for extraneous costs like concert
clothes and airfare to competitions. The outreach
program is also currently developing a curriculum
of music by composers of African-American
descent, the first of its kind which hopes to introduce
students of all races to important contributors
and performers going back to the 1700s.
“Classical music is a part of everyone’s culture and
heritage,” Pine firmly declared. On top of that, her
foundation runs the Global Heart Strings support
program for musicians in developing countries—
what Pine dubs her “second full-time job.”
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
How Pine finds the time and inspiration for all her
projects is baffling, but a life-threatening incident
in 1995 did put things into perspective.While exiting
a Chicago commuter train, the doors closed on
the strap to her violin case and Pine was dragged
366 feet before being run over; one of her legs was
severed and the other seriously hurt.
She did not let the accident stop her; in fact,
Pine launched into her current wildly ambitious
path. “My greatest fear is that I don’t get to play
all the music I would like to before I have to go,”
she explained. A mantra forces her “to be creative,
not just re-creative.”
Recent creative projects include composition.
In a roundabout way, she fell in love with the art;
when forced to write a cadenza for a rediscovered
French concerto from the classical period,
she realized she had a knack for it. Most recently,
she made history when Carl Fischer released a
book of her compositions and arrangements as
part of its Masters Collection. Pine was the first
living composer and first woman to be published
as part of the collection. ■
HISTORY in the MAKING
» BARBER’S LOST PIECE RECEIVES WORLD ‘RE’-PREMIERE
Crystal Chan
IT’S THE PERFECT CELEBRATION
of Samuel Barber’s 100 th birthday: this May,
pianist Lara Downes and violinist Rachel Barton
Pine bring one of his lost works to life at the
Montreal Chamber Music Festival with a performance
of the salvaged third movement of
the Sonata in F Minor.
The sonata has not been performed in 82
years. Barber wrote the piece when he was just
an 18-year-old Curtis Institute student and performed
it at a small 1928 school recital. As the
first major recognition he received, the Joseph
H. Bearns Prize that Columbia University
awarded the composition the following year
was seminal in the composer’s emerging
career. However, the piece then completely left
the radar. The music, scholars sadly assumed,
had been destroyed or lost forever.
Fast forward to 2006: a year after Tom
Bostelle passed away, a holograph copy was discovered
in his estate. Bostelle was a Westchester
artist; it is presumed he boarded in the Barber
home as a young man. The copy contained the
third movement. Barber biographer Barbara
Heyman became aware of the find through her
research, and one day invited her friend Downes
over to her apartment. Nonchalantly, Heyman
put a copy on her piano and asked Downes:
“Why don’t you sight read this?” Pretty soon,
Downes—a Barber specialist—realized the
markedly small and distinguished hand of the
composer was none other than Barber’s himself.
FESTIVAL FOUNDER CELLIST DENIS BROTT
has put together a stellar series of 18 concerts
for the 15 th edition of the Montreal Chamber
Music Festival (May 6 to 29). Violinist RACHEL
BARTON PINE appears in three concerts: She
premieres the Allegro agitato from SAMUEL
BARBER’S SONATA IN F MINOR on May 25 th with
pianist Lara Downes, who contributes a solo
program of Chopin and Barber; Pine partners
with harpsichordist Luc Beauséjour for Bach’s
six sonatas for violin and keyboard on May 27;
Pine participates in the closing Brahms
Marathon on May 29. Other headliners include
Anton Kuerti (May 11), André Laplante and the
Alcan Quartet (May 6). Three Wednesday concerts
are devoted to the festival’s string quartet
in residence, the Afiara String Quartet.
Finally, Fridays are devoted to the Jazz and
The sonata, which is unpublished and
remains unavailable to the public, is around
eight minutes long in performance and most
comparable in style to Barber’s Cello Sonata,
Opus 6 (which will be performed at the same
concert as the discovered work). They possess
a similar style of writing, with a very florid
piano part and a melodic violin part.
“There are big soaring lines and an audacious
use of stretchy intervals,” explained
Downes. “There’s quite a lot written very high
for the violin. And of course the piano part is
dense and—um—energetic! There is a lot of
that interesting syncopation in the piano part,
too. The movement is marked “Allegro
Agitato” but it’s in 9/8 and has lots going on; I
think it’s more successful when the tempo is
pretty free and not rushed: again, like with the
Cello Sonata.”
There is such a buzz around the concert
that international media such as the New York
Times are asking for stories. Pine is elated:
“We’re going to introduce it to the world and
I’m just so honoured and thrilled that I get to
be the one to do so because that’s really a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” she said.
“Performance Today,” the most listened to
classical music radio show in the U.S., will be
broadcasting the performance.
“It is a great honour for us at the Montreal
Chamber Festival to essentially be giving what
amounts to a world premiere,” explained
Montreal Chamber Music Festival Founder
and Artistic Director Denis Brott. ■
MONTREAL CHAMBER MUSIC
FESTIVAL CELEBRATES 15 YEARS
DENIS BROTT
PHOTO : CHRISTINE BOURGIER
Jeans series featuring the Oliver Jones Trio, and
others. www.festivalmontreal.org, 514-489-7444.
Mai 2010 May 23