Rachel Barton Pine, violin: American Traditions
Rachel Barton Pine presents a classical celebration of the violin’s American folk music roots. Beginning with the European dance music of early immigrants – a Bach Partita and a traditional Scottish medley – the sound transforms into a uniquely American style thanks to the influence of African-American music-making.
Four of the featured composers are celebrated fiddlers: Mark O’Connor, Darol Anger, Bruce Molsky, and David Wallace. Each has composed infectious concert music blending classical and American traditional music, blurring the line between the violin and the fiddle.
Black composers from America and Europe are also front and center: Noel da Costa, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, and Daniel Bernard Roumain. The program ends with a famous and thrilling set of Paganini-style virtuoso variations on the quintessentially American tune “Yankee Doodle.”
American violinist Rachel Barton Pine is “an exciting, boundary-defying performer” – Washington Post
The performance is in conjunction with the Coopertown Summer Music Festival and the exhibition PERFECT HARMONY: THE MUSICAL ART & LIFE OF WILLIAM SIDNEY MOUNT at Fenimore Art Museum. www.fenimoreartmuseum.org/future-exhibitions/perfect-harmony
This performance is sponsored by WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
