VCHpresents Excite!: Shredding with Rachel Barton Pine

Shredding with Rachel Barton Pine 27 October 2019 4 pm Victoria Concert Hall

PROGRAMME Eruption - Thunderstruck - Back in Black --- 6' Van Halen & AC/DC arr. Rachel Barton Pine, Anthony Barrese

Fade to Black --- 7' Metallica arr. Rachel Barton Pine

String Quartet No. 8, Op. 110 --- 7'30" Largo, Allegro Molto Dmitri Shostakovich

Led Zeppelin Medley --- 4' arr. Rachel Barton Pine, Anthony Barrese

Cowboys from Hell --- 2'30" Pantera arr. Rachel Barton Pine, Anthony Barrese

Presto from Four Seasons, Summer --- 3' Antonio Vivaldi

Master of Puppets --- 7' Metallica arr. Rachel Barton Pine, Anthony Barrese

The Spirit of Radio --- 4' Rush arr. Rachel Barton Pine

Caprice No. 24 --- 5' Niccolo Paganini

Black Sabbath/ Ozzy Osbourne Medley --- 7'30" arr. Rachel Barton Pine, Anthony Barrese

Rachel Barton Pine, violin Zhao Tian, violin Janice Tsai, viola Chan Wei Shing, cello

RACHEL BARTON PINE v i o l i n

In both art and life, violinist Rachel Barton Pine has an extraordinary ability to connect with people. Celebrated as a leading interpreter of great classic and contemporary works, her performances combine her innate gift for emotional communication and her scholarly fascination with historical research. She plays with passion and conviction, thrilling audiences worldwide with her dazzling technique, lustrous tone, and infectious joy in music-making.

Pine has appeared as a soloist with many prestigious ensembles including the Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Iceland, Montreal, New Zealand, San Diego, St. Louis and Vienna Symphonies; the Buffalo, Calgary, Rochester and Royal Philharmonics; the Louisville and Philadelphia Orchestras, the Royal Scottish Philharmonic, the Belgian and Russian National Orchestras; and the Israel, Mozarteum and Scottish Chamber Orchestras. She has worked with many renowned conductors including Marin Alsop, Zubin Mehta, Neeme Järvi, Placido Domingo, Semyon Bychkov, John Nelson, and Erich Leinsdorf, and with prestigious collaborators including Daniel Barenboim, Christoph Eschenbach, and William Warfield.

Her taste in music also extends into heavy metal, with Pantera, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Slayer and Metallica being among her favourites. She released an album of acoustic rock and metal arrangements in 1997, during which she realised that heavy metal music was compositionally sophisticated, and inspired by classical music. From 20082014, she was a member of the doom/thrash metal band Earthen Grave, performing on a 6-string flying-v electric violin. All of the rock arrangements performed this afternoon are chamber music versions of her arrangements for symphony orchestra.

Pine has a prolific discography, with 39 albums on labels including Avie, Cedille, Warner Classics, and Dorian. Her recordings with some of the world’s most prestigious ensembles and conductors include Brahms & Joachim Violin Concertos (Carlos Kalmar and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) and Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos (Andrew Litton and the BBC Symphony Orchestra), which pays homage to Sir Neville Marriner. Pine and Sir Neville’s Mozart: Complete Violin Concertos with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields charted at number three on the classical charts. Pine’s Testament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin

by Johann Sebastian Bach and Violin Lullabies debuted at number one on the classical chart and her Bel Canto Paganini hit number three.

Pine holds prizes from several of the world’s leading competitions, including a gold medal at the 1992 J.S. Bach International Violin Competition in Leipzig, Germany. She performs on the “ex-Bazzini, ex-Soldat” Joseph Guarnerius del Gesu (Cremona, 1742) on lifetime loan from her patron.

ZHAO TIAN v i o l i n

Born in Sichuan, China, Zhao Tian began his violin lessons with his father when he was three years old.

He was admitted to the Sichuan Conservatory of Music to further his violin studies under Professor Hu Weimin at the age of 8. At the age of 18, he was awarded full scholarship to study at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at the National University of Singapore, where he studied with Professor Qian Zhou. In 2014, he has been selected as exchange student to the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. That same year, he received full scholarship from the Manhattan School of Music to pursue his double Master’s degree (in violin solo & orchestral performance) with former concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, Glenn Dicterow and world renowned violin professor, Lucie Robert. Prior to joining the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, he has worked with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2016 and performed at the Proms in 2018.

An active chamber musician, Zhao Tian has participated in many music festivals including Aspen Music Festival, Texas Music Festival and those of the Music Academy of the West. He has collaborated in chamber music with many distinguished musicians and groups such as Glenn Dicterow, Gil Shaham, Pinchas Zukerman, Lucie Robert, David Takino, American String Quartet and Emerson String Quartet. Zhao Tian has appeared as soloist with the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Orchestra and Penang Philharmonic, performing concertos by Bruch and Tchaikovsky.

He plays a 1904 Matthias Albani violin generously loaned by Mr and Mrs Rin Kei Mei.

JANICE TSAI v i o l a

Born in Taiwan, Janice Tsai began piano lessons at age five and violin lessons at age nine.

At the age of sixteen she was accepted at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music with violin professor Peter Zhang Shi Xiang, and subsequently won scholarships for the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts on both violin and viola studying with Barry Wilde and Jeremy Williams, respectively. Janice was awarded another scholarship to study at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music – University of Sydney, where she was awarded a Masters of Music degree under the guidance of viola pedagogue Winifred Durie.

Throughout her study and beyond, Janice has had the opportunity to work with and participate in masterclasses with some renowned musicians: Ruggiero Ricci, Cho-Liang Lin, Nigel Kennedy, William Percell, Sylvia Rosenberg, Malcolm Bilson, James Dunham, YoYo Ma, Andrew Marriner and Lynn Harrell. Her love for travelling and making music has taken Janice to music festivals across the United Kingdom, Spain, Austria, France, Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

Janice has performed across Europe, Australia and Asia, with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Hong Kong Academy Symphony Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. In addition, she lectures in Viola at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and regularly collaborates with re: mix Singapore, the Singapore Lyric Opera and has held violin and viola recitals in Shanghai, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Australia.

CHAN WEI SHING c e l l o

Chan Wei Shing was born into a musical family and started playing the piano at the age of 8 and the cello at the age of 10. In 1985 he won First Prize in two categories of the National Music Competition - the Cello Open and Chamber Music.

In 1988 he studied with Prof. Angelika May at the University of Music in Vienna and subsequently with Prof. Rudolf Leopold in Graz, Austria. In 1996 he was awarded the Master’s Degree of Arts major in Cello Performing.

Besides having a passion for chamber music and teaching, Wei Shing has started conducting and is now the music director of NEW OPERA SINGAPORE.