Elizabeth Pitcairn - The Red Violin

Celebrated virtuoso violinist Elizabeth Pitcairn performs in partnership with the legendary 1720 "Red Mendelssohn" Stradivarius, the 1990 Christie's Auction of which is said to have inspired the 1999 Academy Award-winning film, "The Red Violin."

Celebrated American violin virtuoso Elizabeth Pitcairn has earned a reputation as one of America’s most beloved and unique soloists.

The signature artist performs in partnership with one of the world’s most legendary instruments, the Red Mendelssohn Stradivarius of 1720, said to have inspired the Academy award-winning film The Red Violin. She gave the Southern California premiere of The Red Violin Chaconne in 2000. Recently Pitcairn collaborated with Lionsgate Films for the 10th anniversary re-release of The Red Violin DVD - Meridian Collection in special feature documentary interviews by Pitcairn and Oscar-winning composer John Corigliano. She is featured performing on the Red Mendelssohn Stradivarius and discussing the inspiring history of the mysterious instrument.

Growing up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Pitcairn began studying the violin at age three and performed her first concerto with orchestra at 14. Her path brought her to Los Angeles to study with preeminent violin professor Robert Lipsett at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. Pitcairn made her New York debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in 2000 with the New York String Orchestra. After winning a major competition, she appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Academy of Music.

Upcoming concerts will feature a return engagement at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center to perform Corigliano’s Red Violin Suite. Other highlights of the 2008-2009 season have included her debut with the Puerto Rico Symphony and an East Coast recital tour with pianist John Novacek. Pitcairn performed the Red Violin Suite to open the inaugural season of the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra (NY) and will perform the Paganini Concerto in a rarely-heard 1921 arrangement by Wiljelmj with eminent conductor Anshel Brusilow in Dallas, TX.

In 2003 Elizabeth commissioned Tommie Haglund, one of Sweden’s foremost composers, to compose a violin concerto. The resulting composition, Hymns to the Night, was dedicated to Pitcairn by Mr. Haglund. The world premiere given by Pitcairn and the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra of Sweden was broadcast nationally on Swedish Radio to tremendous ovations and critical acclaim. In June 2009 Pitcairn recorded the work in Sweden again with the Helsingborg Symphony for an upcoming CD of Mr. Haglund’s music. In addition, she took part in a documentary that is being filmed for Swedish television featuring Mr. Haglund and his music.

Strings magazine featured Pitcairn as their November 2007 cover artist. She performed on the Hammer Stradivarius for the international press at Christie’s NY, which was televised on CNN, Fox News and CNBC, and was featured on the homepage of Yahoo. While performing at the Montreal Chamber Music Festival, she gave televised interviews/performances on CTV, Radio Canada and Global Quebec. John Schaefer of WNYC, New York’s public radio station, presented her in two special interviews and Classic FM (London) broadcast a national interview on Pitcairn’s career.

Pitcairn feels very passionate about bringing the joy of classical music to diverse audiences. She has created her own style of intimate house concert, which combines virtuoso classical music with the Old World charm of Hollywood entertainers. Pitcairn is particularly inspired by Judy Garland, Jackie Gleason, Victor Borge, and the great violinists Jascha Heifetz and David Oistrakh. She performs for private/fundraising events such as the Sir Peter and Lady Michael Foundation for Cancer Research. She gives her time to students in schools, demonstrating and speaking to them about a career in music.

She is currently a member of the distinguished faculty at the Colburn School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles. She was a former adjunct professor of violin at the USC Thornton School of Music, teaching there from 2001 - 2008. Pitcairn is on the Board of Directors and an alumna of the Young Musicians Foundation (Los Angeles) and the American Youth Symphony (Los Angeles) and an Advisory Board member and alumna of the Luzerne Music Center (NY).

Pitcairn has performed the Brahms Violin Concerto with Mehli Mehta and has worked with renowned conductors Zubin Mehta, Michael Tilson Thomas, Boris Brott, Navroj Mehta and Andre-Raphael Smith. She was invited to attend the Marlboro Music Festival where she performed chamber music with members of the Juilliard and Guarneri String Quartets. Her former teachers include Robert Lipsett, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Jascha Brodsky, Sylvia Ahramjian and Julian Meyer.

She was born in 1973 into a closely knit musical family: her mother is a Juilliard-trained cellist and her father is a baritone, past president of the Opera Company of Philadelphia and currently Vice President of the Academy of Vocal Arts. Pitcairn’s younger brother David also studied cello and piano, but became an aeronautical engineer, following in the footsteps of their great uncle Harold Pitcairn, legendary inventor and pioneer in aviation. She has studied piano, ballet and horseback riding and is currently interested in voice, international ballroom dancing, and emphasizes health and fitness as part of her musical training and career. She attended the summer language immersion school at Middlebury College in Vermont, emphasizing the French language for international programs and audiences.

Her discography, featured on www.redviolin.net, includes recordings of Tchaikovsky and Mozart Concerti with the Slovenia Radio Television Orchestra, as well as the Bruch Scottish Fantasy and the Bizet/Sarasate Carmen Fantasy with the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra of Bulgaria.

Carmen Fantasy - Seguidille