Rachel Barton Pine, a violinist whose tastes range widely across musical styles, sustains simultaneous involvement in numerous projects, while her articulate and engaging artistry reaches listeners well beyond those drawn exclusively to classical repertoire. Most of her expanding discography has appeared on Cedille Records. Her programs extend from Baroque works to contemporary scores, several of them commissioned, and she has also explored rock and roll.
Rachel Barton was born in Chicago on October 11, 1974; Pine became part of her name after her 2004 marriage. She began violin studies at age three and gave her initial public recital at seven. Ten years old, she performed as soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Instruction came from Roland and Almita Vamos, Ruben Gonzalez, Elmira Darvarova, and Werner Scholz. Several international prizes arrived in the early 1990s, and both her concerts and her debut album, Homage to Sarasate (1994), signaled an ascending trajectory that a 1995 train accident abruptly interrupted, resulting in the loss of one leg and major injury to the other.
Once she had recovered and completed rehabilitation, Pine returned without delay to an active concert career, appearing regularly with leading American orchestras under conductors that included Zubin Mehta, Charles Dutoit, and Neeme Järvi. Her first post-accident release was Franz Liszt: Works for Violin and Piano with pianist Thomas Labé on the Dorian label.
Since that time she has issued many further recordings, chiefly on Cedille Records and Avie, and has frequently toured in recital to promote them. Solo-violin albums comprise Capricho Latino, Bach's Sonatas and Partitas, and Bel Canto Paganini. During the 2016-17 season she premiered new solo dance suites she had commissioned from Bruce Molsky, Darol Anger, Billy Childs, and Daniel Bernard Roumain. Additional recordings include Violin Concertos by Black Composers of the 18th & 19th Centuries, Scottish Fantasies, and concertos by Glazunov and Montsalvatge. With pianist Matthew Hagle she recorded music by American violinist Maud Powell and the collection Violin Lullabies; both projects feature her editions published by Carl Fischer, the same house that has issued her original compositions and concerto cadenzas.
Pine performs and records Baroque and earlier repertoire as a member of Trio Settecento with John Mark Rozendaal and David Schrader, occasionally using viola d'amore or rebec for these explorations. In such projects she has often appeared with her daughter, violinist Sylvia Pine. From her teenage years onward Pine has also followed rock and heavy metal; she has undertaken projects with Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante, given interviews to rock radio outlets, and created the orchestral program “Shredding with the Symphony,” which juxtaposes works by Van Halen, AC/DC, and Black Sabbath with music by Bruch, Vivaldi, and Sibelius, among others. In 2023 she performed the composer’s Violin Concerto on a recording of Malek Jandali’s Concertos and released Dependent Arising, pairing Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 77, with Earl Maneein’s concerto for violin and orchestra that supplies the album title; the latter disc marked her 24th release on Cedille Records.
Pine founded the Rachel Barton Pine Foundation in 2001 to aid young musicians through assorted programs and partnerships and continued to oversee its activities into the mid-2020s. She performs on the Joseph Guarnerius del Gesu instrument made in Cremona in 1742 and known as the “ex-Bazzini, ex-Soldat,” held on lifetime loan from her patron, and employs a 1770 Nicolò Gagliano I violin for selected Baroque and Classical works.
