Elizabeth Pitcairn | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | December 5, 1973 Bucks County, Pennsylvania |
| Genres | Classical |
| Occupation(s) | Violin soloist |
| Instrument(s) | Violin |
Elizabeth Pitcairn (born December 5, 1973) is a renowned American classical violinist who is noted for performing on the 1720 "Red Mendelssohn" Antonio Stradivari violin. In addition to a solo career, Pitcairn is President and Artistic Director of the Luzerne Music Center in Lake Luzerne, New York.
Elizabeth Pitcairn was born into a musical family in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Her mother, Mary Eleanor Pitcairn (née Brace), is a Juilliard trained cellist, and her father, Laren Pitcairn, trained to be an opera singer. Her great grandfather John Pitcairn Jr., a Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist, was the co-founder of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company.
Pitcairn began to play the violin at the age of three, and credits her mother with the roots of her success. “I owe everything I am to my mother, who with extreme perseverance taught me and guided me musically.” [1]
After attending the Solebury School in New Hope, Pennsylvania, Pitcairn graduated from the University of Southern California where she later taught alongside her former teacher, the renowned violin professor Robert Lipsett. She also taught violin at the Colburn School in Los Angeles.
Pitcairn debuted as a solo artist with the Newark Delaware Symphony at the age of 14, later appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Academy of Music, and was Concertmaster of the American Youth Symphony under Mehli Mehta (father of Zubin Mehta) from 1994-97. She performed at the Marlboro Music Festival in 1997-98 and in 2000 made her New York debut at Alice Tully Hall with the New York String Orchestra. Since that time, she has traveled all over the world performing in such far flung places as China, Brazil, Ukraine, Hungary, Croatia, Poland, Czech Republic, Italy, Finland, and Sweden, in addition to much of the United States.
Pitcairn performs on the 1720 Red Mendelssohn Stradivarius, said to have inspired the Academy Award–winning film The Red Violin, and is featured on the 10th Anniversary edition of The Red Violin DVD in a special commentary called “The Auction Block.” [2]
Pitcairn was a senior in high school when her grandfather gave her the instrument as a gift after making the winning bid during a 1990 Christie’s auction in London. At the time, it was the highest price ever paid at auction for a violin.
In addition to a solo career, Pitcairn is the President and Artistic Director of the Luzerne Music Center located in Lake Luzerne, New York in the foothills of the Adirondack mountains. LMC provides music instruction for young musicians from all over the world in a summer camp environment. [3]
Pitcairn began her long relationship with LMC while attending as a camper during the summers of 1988-89.
Since its inception in 1980, the camp has maintained strong relations with musicians from the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York City Ballet who perform every summer in nearby Saratoga Springs. The professional musicians teach master classes and perform as guest artists at the camp. [4]
The Red Violin is a 1998 drama film directed by François Girard and starring Samuel L. Jackson, Carlo Cecchi and Sylvia Chang. It spans four centuries and five countries as it tells the story of a mysterious red-coloured violin and its many owners. The instrument, made in Cremona in 1681 with a future forecast by tarot cards, makes its way to Montreal in 1997, where an appraiser identifies it and it goes to auction. The film was an international co-production among companies in Canada, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
Sarah Chang is a Korean American classical violinist. Recognized as a child prodigy, she first played as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1989. She enrolled at Juilliard School to study music, graduated in 1999, and continued university studies. Especially during the 1990s and early to mid-2000s, Chang had major roles as a soloist with many of the world's major orchestras.
Midori Goto, who performs under the mononym Midori, is a Japanese-born American violinist. She made her debut with the New York Philharmonic at age 11 as a surprise guest soloist at the New Year's Eve Gala in 1982. In 1986 her performance at the Tanglewood Music Festival with Leonard Bernstein conducting his own composition made the front-page headlines in The New York Times. Midori became a celebrated child prodigy, and one of the world's preeminent violinists as an adult.
Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, is his last concerto. Well received at its premiere, it has remained among the most prominent and highly-regarded violin concertos. It holds a central place in the violin repertoire and has developed a reputation as an essential concerto for all aspiring concert violinists to master, and usually one of the first Romantic era concertos they learn. A typical performance lasts just under half an hour.
Shlomo Mintz is an Israeli violin virtuoso, violinist and conductor. He regularly appears with orchestras and conductors on the international scene and is heard in recitals and chamber music concerts around the world.
Susan Starr is an American pianist.
Julia Fischer is a German classical violinist and pianist. She teaches at the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts and performs up to 60 times per year.
Regina Carter is an American jazz violinist. She is the cousin of jazz saxophonist James Carter.
Sirena Huang is an American concert violinist. She has received numerous awards, including First Prize at the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, First Prize at the Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition, First Place at the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians, and Third Place at the Singapore International Violin Competition and the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition. She has performed with orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. Huang was appointed as the first Artist-in-Residence of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra in 2011.
Fredell Lack was an American violinist. Noted as a concert soloist, recording artist, chamber musician, and teacher, she was the C. W. Moores Distinguished Professor of Violin at the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston in Houston, Texas.
Glenn Dicterow, is an American violinist and former concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. He is on the faculty of the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music where he holds the Jascha Heifetz Chair in Violin as well as serving as a faculty artist at the Music Academy of the West.
Rachel Barton Pine is an American violinist. She debuted with the Chicago Symphony at age 10, and was the first American and youngest ever gold medal winner of the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition. The Washington Post wrote that she "displays a power and confidence that puts her in the top echelon."
Alina Rinatovna Ibragimova is a Russian-British violinist.
Viviane Hagner is a German violinist. She was born in Munich, Germany in 1977, to a German father and Korean mother. She is sister to Nicole Hagner, the pianist.
Stephanie Ann Chase is an American classical violinist.
Luzerne Music Center is a summer music camp and performing arts center, founded in 1980, located on Lake Luzerne, in the Adirondack Park region of New York.
Kinga Augustyn is a New York City-based virtuoso violinist. She has established an international career having performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras, recitalist, and recording artist.
Louise Lincoln Kerr was an American musician, composer, and philanthropist from Cleveland, Ohio. She wrote over 100 music compositions including fifteen symphonic tone poems, twenty works for chamber or string orchestra, a violin concerto, five ballets and incidental music, numerous piano pieces, and about forty pieces of chamber music. She was known as "The Grand Lady of Music" for her patronage of the arts. Louise Kerr helped to co-found and developed The Phoenix Symphony (1947), The Phoenix Chamber Music Society (1960), The Scottsdale Center for the Arts, The National Society of Arts and Letters (1944), Monday Morning Musicals, The Bach and Madrigal Society (1958), Young Audiences, The Musicians Club, and the Phoenix Cello Society. Kerr was also a benefactor to the Herberger School of Music at Arizona State University. She was inducted into the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame on October 21, 2004 and was nominated by conductor and musicologist Carolyn Waters Broe.
Joseph Swensen is a conductor, violinist, and composer. He is winner of awards, including the Leventritt Foundation Sponsorship Award and the Avery Fisher Career Award. In 2000, Swensen was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of St Andrews, Scotland. In 2014, he gave a TedX talk with the title “Habitats for Music and the Sound of Math” about music education and the developing brain, at the New York Institute of Technology.
Vera Tsu Weiling is a professional violinist and Professor and Master tutor of the Central Conservatory in Beijing and Shanghai Conservatory. She is featured in the Academy Award winning documentary From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China, directed by Murray Lerner. Tsu Weiling serves as co-chairman of the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition and vice-president of the China Violin Society.
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
