Friday, February 13, 2015

She Blew the Roof Off: Rachel Barton Pine’s performance in the Classical Music Inside Out series


“Do you want Ozzy or Metallica?” asked violinist Rachel Barton-Pine during her master class for Mesa students. Rachel is a touring classical musician and heavy metal enthusiast. To the delight of teenage students she proceeded to play a violin rendition of a classic Ozzy Osbourne tune. This was just one of many intriguing layers peeled back during her action-packed lecture-demo for orchestra students at Red Mountain High School. 

Rachel was a child prodigy who performed with the Chicago Symphony at age 10, but she relates her whiz kid past with humility by saying “I just learned quickly.” She notes that “by the time you are 30, learning evens out for most” and from that point on she states, “performance is about the musicality.”

Musicality was an integral part of Rachel’s afternoon master class. “Let’s play Twinkle Little Star with emotions.” The nursery song turned joyful, depressed and thoughtful as her refined touch worked its magic but the real show of her musical power was made evident when the “scary” evolution of Twinkle Little Star made the students involuntarily jump in their seats and gasp with surprised fear. That simple yet utterly profound little presentation brought the audience to applaud wildly and rightly so. Rachel is a powerful musician!

Rachel’s performance of ALL 24 Paganini Caprices in one evening at Mesa Arts Center would attest to her continued musical agility. It was astounding to watch and listen as she started out at the top of her “game” with Caprice No.1 and never lost steam during all 24. In fact she gained momentum as she went, each piece more electric with energy and passion than the last.  Caprice No. 24 nearly blew the roof off and we the audience, rose to our feet in admiration and acclamation of Rachel Barton Pine: Priestess of Paganini.


Don’t miss the final performance in the Classical Music Inside Out series, when Natasha Paremski takes the stage to play Pictures at an Exhibition on April 2. Find more information, here! 

By LaDawn Lingard