I'm at that age.
So I understand this is not
your first time performing with the
La Crosse Symphony.
How many times have you been a guest
with the LaPras Symphony,
and when was the last time, and
what did you play?
I was last with the La Crosse
Symphony in October of 2018
when we collaborated,
no sorry, that's wrong, it was
October 2016, okay let me say that
again.
I was last with the La Crosse
Symphony in October of 2016,
when we collaborated,
okay, just have to get in the
groove.
I was with the Lacrosse symphony
in October 2016,
when we collaborate on the third
violin concerto of Camille
Saint-Saens.
And so it's wonderful to be back,
but actually my collaboration
with Maestro Alexander Platt
goes much farther back than
that. I performed with his Waukesha
symphony a couple of times.
And we actually collaborated on my
2004 album,
Scottish Fantasies, recorded with
the Scottish Chamber Orchestra,
all of these wonderful
Scottish-flavored serious
concertos for violin and orchestra.
And even though I've made dozens
of recordings since then,
it seems to be a perennial
popular favorite with the public.
And so it's always fun to reunite
with Alexander because I
just love his musicianship,
his passion for music.
His dedication and commitment.
It's always wonderful to work with a
musician who just
loves music so much.
And of course, this May,
well, let me say that again.
And it was in May
of 2004 that we recorded
our CD together.
Or I shouldn't say CD.
It was in may of 2004 when
we recorded out album together.
So this is actually the album's
21st anniversary.
Wow.
Yeah, he spoke about that when we
interviewed him as well.
Now that was, where was that
recorded?
The recording that Maestro Platon
and I did of the Brooke Scottish
Fantasy and other Scottish fave,
hmm, the recording that maestro
Plat and I did of The Brooke
Scottish fantasy and other Scottish
flavored works for violin and
orchestra was done with the Scottish
Chamber Orchestra in Edinburgh at
the Usher Hall.
So it was a real Scottish project
and um yeah he
just really helped bring that
special Gaelic flavor to life.
Have you worked with him in any
other, other than the Waukesha
Symphony and the La Crosse Symphony
and the recording?
Have you had a chance to work with
him on other projects or other
places?
Well, what makes you want to
keep coming back to La Cres?
Cause you've been here two or three
times in the past, I believe.
Well, I always loved soloing with
orchestras in Wisconsin.
It's such a beautiful state and
I live in Chicago.
I'm a lifelong Chicagoan, so I
have a special patriotic
feeling in my heart for anything in
the Midwest.
But, you know, there's such a
wonderful enthusiasm from the public
of orchestras like the La Crosse
Symphony. It makes it not just an
artistically rewarding, but also a
very personally rewarding experience
for me as a touring artist.
That was wonderful.
Thank you.
What will you be performing this
weekend with the La Crosse symphony?
I never wanna say that one single
concerto is my favorite because I
love so many different violin
concertos, but I have to
admit, I have a soft spot
for the Brahms concerto.
I studied with a student of
a student of the concerto's
dedicatee, Joseph Joachim, in Berlin
during my teenage years.
And in my lesson, he would say,
well, my teacher said that Joachим
said that Brahms said to play it
like this.
So that was pretty amazing.
But I'm also lucky to play
an instrument with a special
connection to Brahms.
I mean, I loved the Brahms concerto
long before that, and actually,
it was when I was about to record
the Brahmm's Violin Concerto with
the Chicago Symphony in 2002
that I was first lent this
amazing instrument for that
occasion, and I fell in love with it
and didn't want to give it back, and
luckily the owner decided
he liked me and the recording, and
I've been playing it ever since.
So this violin...
Was made in the year 1742 by
Guarneri del Gesu of Cremona, Italy.
Guarnere and Stradivari are
considered to be the two greatest
makers ever.
And it's really just a matter of
taste, which one you prefer.
Stradiveris have a very, you know,
buttery sound, very golden tone
quality.
And Guarneres are kind of deeper and
darker, very rich sort of sound,
very powerful instruments.
And there are fewer of them than
there are of Strads.
So if your taste lies in that
direction, There aren't enough to go
around, so I'm very lucky to be
using this one.
It's called the ex-Bazzini
ex-Soldat, after two
of the great artists who played it
in the past, Antonio Bazzini,
a early 19th century Paganini
style virtuoso, and then
Marie Soldat, one of the women
violin soloists of the late 19th
and early 20th centuries.
And she was actually discovered as a
teenager by Brahms
who became a mentor to
her for the remainder of his life.
She was part of his inner circle of
chamber musicians with Brahms at
the piano and Maurice Aldotte
playing violin.
It means this violin got
to jam with Brahmm's.
And in fact, Brahms himself chose it
for her.
Even back then these instruments
could be priced such that they
really weren't possible for artists
that might deserve them to be able
to buy them for themselves.
So Brahms found an aristocratic
family who agreed to buy an
instrument for Maurice Aldott's use
and Brahms chose this
instrument.
So it's amazing to play Brahms's
music on an instrument whose voice
Brahms particularly loved.
But it's also amazing to play
the Brahms concerto on an instrument
that was one of the first
instruments to ever play the Brahms
Concerto, because of course the
world premiere performance in
Berlin, Joseph Joachim, the
dedicatee, played the solo part and
Brahms himself conducted.
The second performance in Berlin,
Joachime conducted, and Marie
Soldat played the solo part.
So she was right there championing
this concerto.
At its beginning, and it's just such
an honor to be able to play this
violin.
It not only does everything that
I could possibly imagine,
but it even suggests things to
me that I would have never thought
of.
So this violin has been playing
this symphony for a lot longer
than any of the musicians
on stage.
Well, none of us were alive when
Brahms was, but this violin sure
was and it used to play chamber
music with Brahms.
That's amazing
What is it that makes the
Brahms concerto so special to you?
Every violin concerto
has its something special about it.
And just like you could never eat
your fie...
Oh, bleh.
There's something special about each
violin concert and just like
you can never eat your favorite food
for every single meal.
You know, having variety is
really key. One week I might play,
you know, the elegant and
drama of Mozart.
The next week I may play something
dark like Shostakovich or something
really personal like Tchaikovsky
or. Or just something celebrating
beauty like Mendelssohn.
Brahms, for me, is not
as personal and intimate
as some of the violin concertos.
I feel like it's less about
describing the human condition and
human emotions and more about
celebrating something that's larger
than ourself.
It feels like it is celebrating
the majesty of creation and
you just feel so elevated when
listening to it.
What's really interesting about the
Brahms concerto is that practicing
my own part, a cappella,
to prepare for a concert is
not as rewarding as with other
concertos because Brahms doesn't
always give the solo part the
melody.
Even though, you know, supposedly
I'm the star of the show,
in this case, it's
actually been called a symphony with
violin. So it's not, you now,
main person and backup band by any
stretch. It's really closer to a
chamber music collaboration where
sometimes...
Section of the orchestra or a
single wind or brass player will
have the melody and I'll
be playing some kind of a counter
melody and so it's
actually in a way more fulfilling
to play it with an orchestra because
you're really part of things and
you have this this
deep musical satisfaction
but certainly playing a
countermelody without the melody
going when you're practicing your
part alone in your room it's
not as automatically appealing as
something like Tchaikovsky, but...
It's definitely worth it.
And I imagine them with
the orchestra, there being so
many other solo instruments, that it
changes from orchestra
to orchestra playing with
them.
The case?
Absolutely.
So one of the great things
about the fact that the Brahms
Concerto is so
symphonically crafted.
The fact that there are important
moments, beautiful melodies from
oboe or from cellos or
you know all around the rest
of the performers on stage
is that every time I play it with a
different orchestra it's different
musicians playing and it's a
little bit different and so
I could never get tired of this
piece. I could ever get bored with
it. It feels fresh every time,
no matter how many times I've ever
played it before, because it's a
new collaboration each time.
And challenging, I imagine, too.
You mentioned in your 24
by 24 recordings
about having to follow the
oboe and having the obo play
the melody and then you having
to following that at points.
I'm just trying to think
what should
the viewers be watching for and
listening for with this concerto?
Is there anything special or
anything specific that you want to
point out?
I think for the audience to truly
appreciate this concerto,
it's not just a question of
giving all of your attention to me
with the orchestra in a supportive
role, because it is
such a partnership between
my part and everybody else's
part. I think if you just take in
the big picture and listen for
all the music that's happening all
around the stage, with of course the
solo violin being at the forefront,
but almost more as a tour guide
than as...
You know, just the main event.
And so you're going to really get
a rich tapestry of colors
and textures,
and there's something very
transporting about that.
I understand that you write your own
cadenzas.
What goes into writing a cadenza?
Is it written out note for
note, or are you improvising
like a jazz musician
might, and does
it change over time?
Questions.
So often in violin concertos,
there are moments when the violin
is playing all by itself.
It's a little bit equivalent to the
guitar solo in a rock song, except
that in the case of cadenzas,
the instrumentalist is completely
alone, but they are playing some,
you know, just fooling
around with the different arpeggios
and stuff, playing derivations
of material that's been heard
in the music heretofore.
In the olden days, in the time of
Mozart, people used to actually
improvise their cadenzas
based on general
rules of how one does
that, but just kind of
make it up on the spot.
Very few people do that these days.
I think primarily because we're
playing so many different styles
of music. Even if all we do is
classical, we're play music from
many, many different centuries and
countries, and so we're not as
steeped in just one narrow
musical language like they were
in. The late 1700s,
but then in the 1800s people started
composing cadenzas for these
moments, whether they were from the
concertos from the 1800 to the
Romantic concertos or whether they
were going back to the Classical
period and writing cadenzos
for the concerto from the 1700s.
And that continued into the 20th
century and at a certain point
most composers stopped leaving
these sort of empty holes.
For the performer to do their own
thing. Now there are still cadenzas,
there are some absolutely great ones
in more recent concertos,
but composers started writing them
themselves and doing it in a little
bit different way where
architecturally the orchestra
would kind of flow into the cadenza
and then connect back out of the
cadenza so that it wasn't as much
like the orchestra stops and then
there's this big solo thing and the
solo thing kind of ends and then the
you know it's not as cut and dry.
Brahms was really one of the last
concertos ever written for violin,
where there was this big pause
with a cadenza opportunity.
And so, of course, the very
first performer of the concerto,
Joseph Joachim, his dedicaty,
wrote a cadenza, and many people
will play Joachims cadenza.
I particularly also like the ones by
Fritz Kreisler, Eugenie
Zay, and my violin hero,
Maude Powell from America, from
the time of Brahms.
But there's nothing more personal
than writing your own cadenza."
because each of us as performers
plays each concerto slightly
differently based on not only
the traditions of the time and what
we believe to be the composer's
intentions, but also based on our
own individual personality.
Each of us is unique as a human,
and so therefore only
your own cadenza can be
truly integrated with your own
interpretation.
And so I used, when I was younger, I
used to worry that, gosh, if I write
a cadenza, it might not be as good
as the classic ones, Joachim
and Kreisler and then I realized I
was looking at it all wrong that
only my cadenza could be the truest
to myself and it's not about
comparing mine to anybody else's
because only mine is the most me and
therefore I always try to encourage
young artists to write their own
cadenzas because it's just such a
fun way to personally express
yourself in music.
I'm not a real composer like my
daughter, I don't have original
melodies pouring out of me, I'm
never going to write a string
quartet or a symphony, but.
I love taking composers melodies
and making arrangements and making
cadenzas and just fooling around
with the music. It's a great way to
be creative and also to
give something a little bit fresh to
the audience that they haven't heard
before, even if they've heard the
Brahms concerto a million times.
Do you ever go back and
slightly change the cadenza over
time that you've written?
Definitely, as you
know, I live life and
my artistry continues to evolve
through performances and
collaborations and, you know
just experiencing the ups and
downs of existence,
you know, my interpretations start
to change and that of course
includes the interpretations of
something I myself have written.
I haven't yet.
Um, significantly changed
my interpretation to a piece such
that I would need to write a new
cadenza to reflect my new approach,
but if that ever did happen,
absolutely I would.
And actually there was one concerto
that I never wrote my own cadenza to
for a long time, the Paganini first,
because I just loved Soré's
cadenza and I just
felt like, you know, I would do
something similar but not as good if
I just tried to write my own.
But then I totally
changed my interpretation.
Of the Paganini after studying
with an Italian vocal coach
who really knew about the Bel Canto
style in Italy from that time that
influenced Paganinni.
And after that I realized that
my interpretation didn't fit
with the Sore cadenza at all,
even though I still loved it as a
piece. And so at that
point then I wrote a cadenza for
Paganine 1 that was
quite a bit different and really
fit with my new way of playing
Paganini.
That's great.
I love to hear about how these
things evolve and
come into existence and change.
During the pandemic,
you started your 24 and 24
concertos from the Inside Web
Series.
Are you currently working on
anything similar for social media?
And what other projects do you have
in the works right now?
The pandemic was, of course, such a
difficult time for everyone, but
there were many silver linings.
I loved the fact that I could
do things online that reached people
in countries that I've
never visited and maybe never
will for a long time.
I loved to the fact that people
could watch concerts who were
maybe too old and frail
or ill or too young and
wiggly to go to a concert.
And just this.
You know access was
such a beautiful thing and
I do hope that at
some point the world will evolve
such that there are more hybrid
types of things. I totally
understand why everybody was burned
out on zoom and
streaming and all that and it's so
there's nothing that can beat live
performance being in the same room
as the performers and just getting
caught up in the collective emotion
of everybody experiencing the
concert with you even the acoustics
of an orchestra on stage.
In a live acoustic can never be
replicated digitally.
But there's something beautiful
about also being able to just
watch a variety of things online
that you can't get to in person.
And educationally, I loved being
able to give master classes to
people in, you know, other
states and other countries.
And I've done a little bit of that.
You know, there was, gosh, a couple
months ago, a random high school in
Kentucky who would never have been
able to afford to fly me in and put
me up just to have me do a workshop
with their kids.
I did it over the screen and
it went really well and I felt that
it was of great value and I really
enjoyed myself too.
So I hope to continue doing
more of that. Maybe one day we'll
transition to holograms, who knows?
But in the meantime,
I'm so busy traveling and
performing in person that I don't
get to do a lot of online concerts
per se.
But I'm always searching for
different ways to connect.
I recently made a bunch of videos
for a really popular
website called ToneBase.
Which gives kind of lessons
that you can watch on different
technical aspects of violin playing
or different pieces of repertoire.
And so some of the things that I
talk about a lot with students about
certain kinds of approaches to
scales and double stops, I was able
to make those videos so that
students that I haven't worked with
one-on-one can still see me talk all
about it. And so that was really
exciting.
It is a great teaching tool,
a way to reach
beyond.
Dealing with people in person.
Can you tell us a little bit about
the Rachel Barton Pined Foundation?
When did it start and what are its
goals and how's it grown
through the years?
I started my Rachel Barton Pine
Foundation in 2001 as
a way to really give back and
pay it forward for some of the help
that I had received as a student.
I came from a very economically
struggling family with a
father who was unemployed for most
of my childhood and my mom was
raising me and my younger sisters
and so you know
just being able to pay for lessons
was basically impossible
and I was able to continue my
studies thanks to scholarships,
but all of the extra things that you
need to do.
Scholarships don't actually cover
those, whether you're talking about
strings for your instrument,
borrowing an instrument itself so
you have something to play on,
gas to put in your car to drive to
your lessons, concert clothes,
piano accompanist fees,
sheet music that you have to buy in
order to study it, audition
recording sessions, the list goes
on.
And so I was able to
scrape by and make it work thanks to
various generous supporters,
extended family, my church.
And so I started my foundation to be
able to help young artists who are
also aspiring to a life in
music, doing really well with their
studies, but facing extreme
financial difficulties.
And then once I had a
not-for-profit going, I
realized that I could do other
things too.
And back in 97, I had made
an album of violin concertos by
black composers of the 17 and
1800s.
And that really struck a
chord with people.
Students, parents, and teachers
starting sort of asking me where
they could find this repertoire
and people just hadn't known that
these composers existed from way
back when.
And I realized there were literally
hundreds of wonderful composers of
African descent from all over the
planet, from all throughout the
centuries, and there is
a lot of fantastic work being done
in this area of music history by
various researchers, but it really
wasn't filtering out into the
general population with usable
pedagogical materials.
And access to music that might exist
only in manuscript because
of lack of opportunity back in
the day or it might be out of print.
So I started my Music
by Black Composers project also
in 2001 and
it's just been really
exciting to be able to publish
violin beginner books
and now more advanced books to be
able to create all of our free
online databases of
everything from podcasts
about...
You know, diverse repertoire,
children's books, our coloring book
of black composers.
There's just so much that
you can find on our website, and
we've got lots more to do.
And, you know, during the pandemic,
I didn't have to Netflix binge or
bake. I could just keep on
going with my research.
And we've flute volumes that
are about to come out now.
We just had some piano books
of music by the Chevalier de
Saint-Georges, Joseph Bologna
from the time of Mozart in
France.
There's just one exciting thing
after the other and I just love
that I can do something that
kind of weds my love
of history and music research with
my love classical music
access and of course music
education.
And so there's resources for
performers, for teachers, for
students and
we've done a lot.
I'm so proud of the work of
my colleagues who've been helping
with the project and I'm so grateful
to all of the generous donors
who've helped make it all possible.
And I'm so excited about all that we
are still planning to do.
Do you ever sleep?
It seems like you've got so much
going on that just
so many different things and so many
avenues that you are
touching people with music.
It's incredible.
I feel so incredibly lucky to
be living my dream, really.
This is the life I always wanted to
have, being able to play lots of
concerts for people and in
the concert halls and beyond.
I have a concert next week at a
homeless shelter, and that
means just as much as a big
1,000 seat concert hall.
And being able to uplift people's
spirits with music is what it's
really all about, and then being
able to encourage the next
generation.
And explored different repertoire,
whether it's newly written pieces or
historic things that have been
heretofore under-recognized.
You know, it's just so exciting
to be able to get to do all that I
do. And it's so
amazing that I get to live my life
this way.
Thank you.
I just have one more question.
I couldn't let you go without asking
you about
that I read in addition to
classical music you have an affinity
for heavy metal
and what are some of your
favorite heavy metal bands?
I understand you have collaborated
with some of the musicians.
Can you talk a little bit about
that?
Well, classical, of course, is my
number one favorite kind of music.
My second favorite music is Chicago
blues and my third favorite
music, sorry, my fourth favorite
music in Scottish fiddling and right
in between there.
My third favorite Music is heavy
metal, specifically certain
sub genres, particularly thrash.
So I love, you know, guys like
Slayer, Anthrax, Megadeth,
Pantera, Sepultura.
And you know this is the music that
I grew up with.
Ever since Santa Claus brought me a
transistor radio when I was 10 years
old and I started exploring up and
down the dial and found metal and
that was that.
And I always thought it was just
something to kind of get pretty far
away from classical after studying
classical all day that I would just
rock out.
But it turns out that a lot of
the more complex subgenres
of heavy metal are actually very
indebted to classical music, very
inspired by it.
And I've had the opportunity to meet
many of my favorite bands.
Hear about their favorite classical
composers and they don't just stop
at Bach and Beethoven.
They're talking about Isai and
Locatelli and Tartini and
you know, barely is Rachmaninoff
enlist. And you know it's like,
okay, you know this makes
sense because you can hear it in
their music when you stop and
actually analyze it which sometimes
I don't, I just rock out.
And it's fun to play that music
on my violin not as any kind
of a crossover artist because that's
not really where my heart is but as
a way to show the connections
between rock and classical and
encourage my fellow rock fans to
give classical a try because
actually one of the coolest stories
is the Brahms Violin Concerto,
the one I'm playing with La Crosse
Symphony because I was in Germany
one day hanging out with the lead
guitarist of the Scorpions, Uli John
Roth, one of their really legendary
electric guitar players, and
he was telling me how there's this
moment halfway through the first
movement of Brahms concerto that has
this kind of
lick. And he started using
that lick in his guitar solos and
then Eddie Van Halen started copying
him and then everybody, of course,
started copying Van Halin.
And now when you hear that lick,
it actually is from the Brahms
Violin Concerto and everybody uses
it. So there's this incredible
influence that classicals
had beyond its own genre, which is
so cool.
And of course it's
also fun to just play loud.
And for a number of years, I was
a member of Earth and Grave.
And we were just
straight up classical. I was playing
a six string electric violin
so I could play the lead solos,
what would have been a guitar solo,
except I was doing it.
I could the really low riffs
and I could have
a clean sound and duet
with the vocalist in a more lyrical
way.
So electric violin is actually so
much more versatile than any other
instrument of a band.
And we made an album that I'm
still very proud of.
We got to open for Megadeth one
time, which was really fun.
That was actually in Wisconsin.
And we got to have all kinds of
adventures.
So, um, that was, I was really,
really grateful for those years.
And that what was particularly
rewarding was the process
of collective songwriting because
in classical one person
composes everybody's parts,
but in a band, one person might
have an idea for one riff.
One person throws in another.
You might all decide how many times
you do something before you go to
the bridge.
You each add your own layers of your
own parts on top of the main riff.
And it's this collective process
of developing a song
and having combined
creativity.
And that's something that was a
really new and really
interesting experience for me.
When you play heavy
metal out of violin, do you detune
it like so many guitarists do for
heavy metal?
Actually, my band Earth and
Grave was Doom mixed
with Thrash, and so we did
downtune, but since I didn't
have the guitar notes of my strings
in the first place, I just stayed
with my normal strings.
D is actually a really good key for
the violin, in some ways better than
E, so I was perfectly
happy to keep the violin with its
with its usual notes.
Well, I think
that's everything,
unless there was anything that you
wanted to say about performing with
the La Crosse symphony, but
I think I've kept
you here long enough.
You have been wonderful,
thank you so much.
All right.