I told the audience at today’s Kenosha Orchestra Boosters event that when there is a special guest as famous as Rachel Barton at a small community event like this one, 99 times out of 100 they will breeze in right before their moment in the spotlight, do their thing, and will be on their way back to their limousine before the applause has died away. But Rachel Barton Pine and her husband Greg decided to come for the whole event, start to finish, the epitome of graciousness and generosity.
She was involved in two different moments in the afternoon. First at 2:00 (except that it was 2:25) she took the stage for a Q & A with yours truly that really turned out nicely. I asked her questions about her own study as a young violinist- about her teacher (it turns out that she spent many years studying with a renowned husband and wife teaching team)- about the support she received from her own parents- and she also gave the musicians in the audience some advice on how to practice well. It was especially interesting to hear her talk about her latest CD, a tribute to the great violinist Maud Powell. She was born in 1867 and was one of the best violinists in the world – the first American instrumentalist to make recordings – the first musician to organize string quartets that featured both men and women (before Powell, string quartets were always comprised entirely of men or of women- never a mix) – a musician who championed the music of African-American composers, etc. And this extraordinary musician emerged from the little town of Peru, Illinois where apparently you can see a statue of her in the town square. Rachel Barton loves to explore fascinating figures like this from the history of American music and it makes her perhaps the most interesting and valuable violinist before the public today. No wonder she holds Maud Powell in such high esteem; in some ways Rachel is her modern day equivalent.
I feel like I know Rachel Barton Pine pretty well by now, because she has been a soloist several times over with both the Kenosha and Racine Symphony Orchestras – and has also played at Carthage. I have also interviewed her on WGTD four or five times. She first soloed with the KSO back in 1996, which was just a couple of years after the horrific accident which made her such a well-known figure at a very young age. Rachel was exiting a city train in Chicago one day when the doors closed right behind her, catching the violin case which was slung over her shoulder- so she was outside the train doors but her violin case was inside, and she was essentially pinned helplessly to the side of the train by the strap of her own violin case. I don’t want to go into too much detail about what happened next – and I literally shudder at the thought of what happened next – but suffice to say that she was terribly injured and is lucky that she wasn’t killed in the incident. I remember that first time she was soloist with the KSO – and how she came onstage on crutches, looking so small and so vulnerable – – – but playing with incredible brilliance. And she has never looked back, playing all over the world to enormous acclaim. But because Kenosha was so supportive of her as she was just putting her professional career back together, she has had a soft spot for our city and has returned many times.
Anyway, we did a Q & A for about 25 minutes and you could have heard a pin drop, so quite and attentive was everyone in the crowd. And then at 3:30, except that it wasn’t until 4:20, Rachel played a recital that was nothing short of brilliant. The neatest moment was when she played an absolutely gorgeous piece written by an American woman composer, Amy Beach, expressly for Maud Powell. In fact, the two women played it together for a special exhibit for women musicians at the 1893 World’s Exposition in Chicago. Rachel told the story that when this piece was played, the audience loved it so much and accorded it such a delirious ovation that they decided to play it again – but a couple of minutes into the encore, a gust of wind came along and blew the score off of Maud Powell’s music stand. But she already had this brand new piece committed to memory and played it to the end without missing a beat or making a single mistake. O to have been there for that memorable moment. And how neat to have this modern day Maud Powell play that same music so beautifully for us today.
One more Rachel Barton story. One of the all=time incredible moments in my life in terms of pleasant surprises came when Kathy and I were walking through downtown Salzburg, Austria – on tour with the Carthage Choir. (This is in January 2000.) As I’m walking down the street, I suddenly realized that someone who had just passed me looked really familiar – and when I stopped, turned around and called out “Greg?” the guy turned around and smiled. It was Greg Pine, Rachel’s then- boyfriend/ now-husband, whom I had met a few months earlier and liked very much. They were in town because Rachel was soloing for the Mozart Festival there – and it was so cool to cross paths unexpectedly with him in that city half way across the world. Greg was devoted to Rachel then and now – and he makes it possible for her to do all that she does.
It is always a privilege to be in the presence of greatness- and in the presence of incredible courage as well.
Pictured: Rachel Barton Pine during our Q & A session at the Kenosha Women’s Club this afternoon.