With his adventuresome spirit and vast musical gifts, violinist Tim Fain has emerged as a mesmerizing new presence on the music scene.  The “charismatic young violinist with a matinee idol profile, strong musical instincts, and first rate chops” (Boston Globe) was most recently seen on screen and heard on the soundtrack of the new hit film Black Swan, and heard as the sound of Richard Gere’s violin in Fox Searchlight’s feature film Bee Season. Selected as one of Symphony and Strad magazines’ “Up-and-Coming Musicians,” Fain captured the Avery Fisher Career Grant  and a Young Concert Artists International Award.  As The Washington Post recently raved, “Fain has everything he needs for a first-rate career.”

He electrified audiences at debuts with the Baltimore Symphony with conductor Marin Alsop, at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival and with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.  He has also appeared with the Mexico City and Oxford (UK) Symphonies, Cincinnati Chamber Symphony, Brooklyn and Hague Philharmonics, and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in a special performance at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center.  In addition, he was the featured soloist with the Philip Glass Ensemble at Carnegie Hall in a concert version of Einstein on the Beach and continues to tour the US and Europe in a duo-recital program with Phillip Glass.

Fain appeared in recital at the Ravinia Festival, Amsterdam’s venerable Concertgebouw, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Kennedy Center Mexico’s Festival de Musica de Camara in San Miguel de Allende, Carnegie’s Weill Hall, California’s Carmel Mozart Society, University of Georgia, Boston’s Ives and Ringling International Festivals, San Diego Art Institute, University of California at Davis, Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd St Y, and elsewhere across the globe. His multi-media evening Portals premiered to sold-out audiences in New York, Los Angeles and at its midwestern premiere at Omaha’s KANEKO. The centerpiece of the evening is Partita for solo violin, a new work written especially for him by Philip Glass, and also features collaborations with Benjamin Millepied, Leonard Cohen, film maker Kate Hackett, and with radio personality Fred Child and pianist Nicholas Brittel appearing on screen.  

A dynamic and compelling performer in traditional works, he is also a fervent champion of 20th and 21st century composers, with a repertoire ranging widely from Beethoven and Tchaikovsky to Aaron Jay Kernis and John Corigliano; as the Los Angeles Times recently noted, his career “is based, in part, on new music and new ways of thinking about classical music.“  His provocative debut CD Arches, music for solo violin, reflects Fain’s inquisitive passion and intellect, combining old and new solo works by J.S. Bach, Fritz Kreisler, Kevin Puts, Mark O’Connor, Daniel Ott, and Randy Woolf. His new disc, River of Light (Naxos), brings the tradition of the virtuosic short piece into the present, with short works by living American composers.

He has collaborated with such luminaries as Pinchas Zukerman, Richard Goode, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Jonathan Biss, has appeared with the Mark Morris Dance Group, Seán Curran Company, and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, and appeared onstage with the New York City Ballet, performing alongside the dancers in the acclaimed premiere of Benjamin Millepied’s “Double Aria." He has also worked with jazz pianists Billy Childs and Ethan Iverson (The Bad Plus), guitarist Rich Robinson (Black Crowes), and appeared at Jazz at Lincoln Center with singer-songwriter Rob Thomas (Matchbox 20). 

A sought-after chamber musician, Fain has performed at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York’s Bargemusic, Chamber Music Northwest, and the Spoleto (Italy), Bridgehampton, Santa Fe, Caramoor, Bard, Lucerne (Switzerland), “Bravo” Vail Valley, Moab, and Martha’s Vineyard Festivals. He has toured nationally with Musicians from Marlboro, and was first violinist of the Rossetti String Quartet. 

A native of Santa Monica, California, Tim Fain is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music, in Philadelphia, where he studied with Victor Danchenko, and The Juilliard School, where he worked with Robert Mann.  He performs on a violin made by Franceso Gobetti, Venice 1717, the “Moller,” on extended loan from Clement and Karen Arrison through the generous efforts of the Stradivari Society of Chicago.

Oliver Schnyder was born in 1973 in Brugg (Switzerland). He studied with Emmy Henz- Diémand in Aarau as well as in Homero Francesch’s masterclass in Zurich. After his solo exams he continued with Ruth Laredo in New York, before completing his studies with Leon Fleisher in Baltimore between 1998 and 2001. 
On his return to Europe his career went from strength to strength. In 2002 he was invited to the Orpheum Musikfesttage, where his interpretation of Saint-Saëns’ G minor Concerto with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra under David Zinman was received with unanimous praise by public and press. This marked the beginning of a development which would take him to the most important world concert halls and music festivals. Many years of chamber music partnerships with Julia Fischer, Veronika Eberle and Sol Gabetta enriched his artistic profile and brought him to the attention of an ever growing public. The international media have dubbed Oliver Schnyder a “piano poet” and like to compare his aesthetic approach with that of great pianists such as Kempff, Schnabel, Fischer, Barenboim, Perahia or Brendel. 
Recent high points have included a great collaboration with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Migros Kulturprozent Classics tours with the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne under Semyon Bychkov in 2010, and with the London Philharmonia under Philippe Jordan in 2012, as well as appearances at the Lucerne Festival in 2011 with Liszt’s Malédiction, and solo performances alongside Martha Argerich. His engagements have taken him to the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Musikkollegium Winterthur, and the Belgrade Philharmonic, amongst others. Since 2009 he has been heard in New York (Carnegie Hall), Taipei (National Concert Hall), Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), London (Wigmore Hall), Munich (Herkulessaal, Prinzregententheater), Cologne (Philharmonie), Brussels (Palais des Beaux-Arts), Montreal, Paris, Dortmund, in the Bayer Kultur series, as well as at the Lucerne Festival (KKL), Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele, Festival Classics Zurich, at the Klavierwoche Ernen and also as Festival Artist at the Boswiler Sommer. His chamber music collaboration with violinist Andreas Janke and with the cellist Benjamin Nyffenegger led in 2012 to the founding of the Oliver Schnyder Trio. For RCA Red Seal (Sony) Oliver Schnyder has recorded solo works and Piano Concertos by Mozart, Schumann, Liszt, and Haydn, and his numerous radio and television recordings amply demonstrate the high quality of his art. 
RCA CDs:
April 2013: Schubert, The Piano Trios. Oliver Schnyder Trio (with Andreas Janke and Benjamin Nyffenegger)
2012: Haydn Piano Concertos / Academy of St Martin in the Fields
2011: Liszt album / Pèlerinage Suisse, Legends, Malediction for piano and strings / 60 pages deluxe hardcover book &amp; bonus cd - limited edition  
2010: Schumann Piano Works
2008: Mozart Piano Concertos / Camerata Bern


Cellist, composer, procrastinator.
I work with my other half, @dan-cullen writing music for sync libraries, film, TV and for the consumption of those who love a bit of cello in the mix.

Founder and Managing Director @SpectrickDMA
www.safyeldin.me

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