A tireless ambassador for classical music, Rachel Barton Pine is dedicated to community engagement and music education. She is always eager to work with students, reach new audiences, and share her enthusiasm about music with as many members of the public as possible.

Please click on the links in the sidebar for more information about Ms. Pine's outreach activities.

Weekend’s Concerts
by Kenneth W. Hopper, General Manager, New Mexico Symphony Orchestra

Rachel's visit was so much beyond her artistry that I wanted to share some of her experiences with you.

I don't think there's another artist so willing to work so hard to promote their concerts with a host orchestra. She participated in 3 radio programs, two on KHFM and an early morning program on 94 Rock. She received an email Saturday from a listener to that program who heard her and attended the concert. I'll quote his email here: "I finally got to see you perform tonight in Albuquerque! It was awesome! This was my first Symphony and I loved it. I heard you on 94 Rock and had to go. I love music and I would like to understand classical music more. I haven't had a lot of exposure to it. You are so talented, thanks for playing here! Hopefully you will play here again soon."

Rachel was engaged in three educational events: appearances before music students at Cibola High School and at the Bosque School and a master class at Robertson's Violin Shop for UNM violin students.

As an example of Rachel's popularity with the audience, she sold all of the CDs she brought. The final ones to sell were recordings of rock music, bought by elderly members of the audience yesterday who, I guess, would have bought any recording just to play her music at home.

All of the above Rachel carried out with incredible vitality and aplomb.

Rachel's supreme musicianship and artistry would be sufficient to warrant her stature. Those qualities, accompanied by her philanthropy, make her truly a rare artist and consummate person.

Rachel Barton Pine: A Great Ambassador for the Violin
by Eric Godfrey, Violinist.com

We are still glowing in our little Wisconsin town about Pine's visit this past Thursday-Friday. Here's why.
Rachel Barton Pine played Paganini #2 with our [Ripon Symphony] orchestra yesterday. And played spectacularly. But she didn't just do that; on a 2-day visit she:

• Visited two elementary schools and the middle school, playing parts of "Winter" (Vivaldi) and getting the kids involved in a variety of creative ways (she said only the absence of the high school musicians on a trip kept her from going there too).
• Did a college class.
• Presided over a 90-minute master class (I was privileged to be one of the 2 people + 1 quartet playing). Her comments were laser-sharp, articulate, and extremely helpful. Her detailed comparison and demonstration of Mozart #3 (G) to an aria from a Mozart opera was especially insightful (that wasn't mine, I played Bach).
• Did a 60-minute seminar on the history of the Paganini, and her violin, and a comparison of both Paganini concerti with the Brahms concerto. At one point she picked one of the most challenging passages from the first movement of the Brahms, and proceeded to whip through it - 4 times flawlessly, showing different stylistic approaches to playing it. Then she explained how she wrote her cadenza to the Paganini #2, which was an absolutely first-class cadenza, really added to the performance.
• After the concert, she was content to just hang out with mostly students (and a few of us adult hangers-on) at a restaurant reception, delightful and completely unassuming in conversation. And generous with her time, because she finally left at 11:30 pm for a 3-hour drive home, facing an 11 am Trout Quintet rehearsal the next morning. She could have easily bailed out right after her performance (before intermission).

I've gone on too long (and am leaving out all sorts of gems from her). Suffice to say my conclusion: awe-inspiring, and if classical musicians used her as a model, we would face a bright future.