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gpmf.org2 0 1 6 G R AN T PA R K MU S I C F E S T I VA L
Chicago’s own hometown violin virtuoso
Rachel Barton Pine
makes a long-overdue
return engagement to the Grant Park
Music Festival on Wednesday, July 13
to solo on Bruch’s flashy
Concerto in G
Minor
, an audience favorite beloved for
its flowing melodies and graceful rhythms.
Pine is known for playing with passion and
conviction across an extensive repertoire,
thrilling audiences with her bravura
technique, lustrous tone and infectious joy
in music-making.
Able to show the connecting threads
between classical and rock music, Pine is a
bridge between generations of music fans;
hailed as an artistic ambassador, she visits
radio stations and clubs to perform her own
arrangements of rock and heavy metal songs followed by classical pieces to
show how the two genres share a similar intensity and compositional complexity,
and to help draw new listeners to classical music.
Festival audiences, seasoned and new, classical and rock ’n’ roll, will be
intoxicated by Pine as a gifted interpreter of great classical and contemporary
works. And she is no stranger to Bruch. In fact his
Violin Concerto in G Minor
was the first big romantic concerto Pine learned at age eight, and at 14 she first
soloed on the piece with an orchestra. It’s been a favorite part of her repertoire
ever since. From the first time she performed the concerto, she recalls that its
grand third movement, with its complex “Bruch tenths,” always made her smile
when she played.
“This music is amazing and it doesn’t get any less amazing no matter how long
you’ve been doing it. Twice as many years later I still get just as excited,” she
says, adding, “but you probably won’t see me grinning from ear to ear on stage.”
The Festival will honor Pine at its Advocate of the Arts Awards Benefit on
September 12.
RACHEL BARTON PINE
COMES HOME
Lisa Marie Mazzucco