A collection of diverse American violin music I recorded with pianist Pei-Yao Wang. I’ve brought together such diverse musical works as the concert version of Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach, William Bolcom’s nostalgic Graceful Ghost Rag, Jennifer Higdon’s Legacy, and Aaron Jay Kernis’ Air. Also includes the soaringly lyrical Aria by Kevin Puts, Lev Zhurbin’s lovely Sicilienne. My hope was that  these pieces could offer a vibrant portrait of contemporary violin repertoire.

River of Light

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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.

A plastic surgeon that creates music for fun

Air

TimFain