RACHEL LEE PRIDAY violin

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“Rachel Lee’s performance [was] nothing short of exquisite. Words could not describe this violinist’s talents. Indeed Lee [is] among the most talented musicians in the world.” –San Francisco Examiner

“In many ways [Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto with Rachel Lee Priday as soloist] was the highlight of the night…She has a gutsy way of digging into the music, and a terrific sense of rhythm…She commanded attention from the first bars, which has the violin playing a klezmer-like melody against a shiver of strings. Her articulation was crisp and sure.” –The Buffalo News

“It’s not just her technique either, although clearly there’s nothing she can’t do on the fingerboard or with her bow. No, what’s most impressive is that she is already an artist who can make the music sing… ” –The Baltimore Sun

short bio

press

V iolinist Rachel Lee Priday (PRY-day), acclaimed for her beauty of tone, riveting stage presence, and “irresistible panache” (Chicago Tribune), has appeared as soloist with major

international orchestras, including the Chicago, St. Louis, Houston, Seattle, and National Symphony Orchestras, the Boston Pops, and the Berlin Staatskapelle. Her frequent recital appearances have brought her to such distinguished venues as the Mostly Mozart Festival at Avery Fisher Hall, the Kansas City Harriman-Jewell Series, Verbier Festival, the Louvre, Ravinia’s “Rising Stars” Series, and a debut UK recital tour. Critics have praised her “dazzling, forceful technique,” “rich, mellifluous sound,” and “silvery fluidity.” Combining a fierce intelligence with an imaginative curiosity, her wide-ranging repertoire and eclectic programming reflect a deep fascination with literary and cultural narratives, as an artist who seeks contemporary resonances with the masterworks of the past.

Rachel takes a multidisciplinary approach to music that often lends itself to collaborative, interdisciplinary performances and new music commissions. Notably, recent seasons have seen a new Violin Sonata commissioned from Pulitzer Prize Finalist Christopher Cerrone together with pianist David Kaplan, and the premiere of Matthew Aucoin’s The Orphic Moment in an innovative staging that mixed poetry, drama, visuals, and music. This season, Rachel is commissioning a new work for solo violin alone from Timothy Andres, which will premiere in 2018-2019. In addition, as Resident Artist with Metropolis Ensemble in NYC, she is collaborating with composer Scott Wollschleger on a forthcoming Double Concerto for Solo Violin, Mixed Professional and Amateur Orchestra, It is only for those without hope that hope is given, which will build partnerships between professional and community groups across the country. The work will premiere in early 2019 and carry through the 2019-2020 season, combining performance in conjunction with educational residencies.

Rachel’s distinguished mentors include the late pedagogue Dorothy DeLay and Itzhak Perlman. She earned her B.A. in English from Harvard University as well as an M.M. from the New England Conservatory. She performs on a Nicolo Gagliano violin (Naples, 1760), double-purfled with fleurs-de-lis, named Alejandro.

“Lee seemed not the least intimidated by [Paganini’s fiendishly difficult 1816 Violin Concerto No. 1]… She coped with the music’s acrobatic turns and leaps with immaculate precision, but amid all the violin fireworks she also played, where possible, with expressive phrasing and warmth of tone. This was especially apparent in the slow movement that she turned into a welcome oasis of Italianate lyricism… In the racehorse Finale, Lee’s execution of the bouncing spiccato passages was truly dazzling... The audience gave Lee a well-deserved standing ovation.” –The Buffalo News

“Lee is the real thing...She played the [Tchaikovsky] Violin Concerto with a rich, mellifluous sound and negotiated the work’s demanding running passages with chiseled clarity. Lee was particularly eloquent in the concerto’s second movement. She brought a dazzling, forceful technique to bear on the third movement.” –The Greenville News

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CHAOS AND ELEGANCE: MUSIC DURING WWI AND BEYOND

The darkest periods of history do not always produce overtly disturbing music; in response to war, music often turns inward and even backward, acting as a respite from traumatic events. As we approach the centennial of the end of the Great War, Rachel Lee Priday examines the phenomenon of composers during World War I and beyond whose self-introspection and nostalgia for bygone eras became sources of new inspiration. Each of the works in “Chaos and Elegance” grapples with the question of musical order not only under the shadow of war, but also within a context of modernist experimentation. They are statements of personal vision and language, unique amalgamations of influences past and present, and prime examples of the breathtaking explosion of stylistic diversity in the 20th century.

PROGRAM I

Program I features the mature, late works of four composers whose musical arcs were shaped by the experience of WWI, and who found inward solace and meaning in folk traditions, nationalism, and staunch musical convictions amid the fraught intensity of world events.

Janáček, whose strikingly avant-garde works were only produced in his fifties and sixties, started work on his Violin Sonata in 1914 as war began: “I could just about hear the sound of the steel clashing in my troubled head...” The Sonata is a study in extreme contrasts: the paranoia, fear, and anxiety of coming war is set against Janáček’s deep-rooted passion for folk music, with its tender melodies, rich harmonies, and childlike serenity.

Debussy’s Violin Sonata (1917) is, in his own words, “an example of what may be produced by a sick man in time of war”: it his final completed work, written as he battled terminal cancer and grew increasingly despondent about war. Though he incorporates touches of Spanish flair and Asian harmonies, Debussy—an ardent French nationalist who signed his wartime work as “musicien français”—achieves in the Sonata a characteristically French brevity and precision of expression.

Elgar’s introspective, conservative Violin Sonata (1918), written during a final spurt of creativity in the composer’s life at the end of World War I, has a nostalgic and autumnal quality.

Shostakovich’s great Violin Sonata (1968), written in the final decade of the composer’s life, bears the intensity of lifelong Soviet oppression and displays the maturity of his signature polystylism. The Sonata makes use of Jewish klezmer music and nods to serialism throughout the piece. Yet it is the sound of funeral bells, recalled from earlier moments, that brings the work to a close.

PROGRAM II

Program II presents the works of four composers who, during WWI and immediately after, reached new turning points in their stylistic trajectories by looking to eras past, whether reaching for the purity and formal elegance of the ancient world, or the dance-like forms of the Baroque.

Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne, based on his 1920 ballet Pulcinella, playfully injects Baroque forms in the style of Pergolesi with touches of modernist astringency. Of Pulcinella, the first major work of Stravinsky’s neoclassical phase, Stravinsky wrote, “[It] was my discovery of the past, the epiphany through which the whole of my late work became possible. It was a backward look, of course…but it was a look in the mirror, too.”

In writing the Mythes, Op. 30 (1915), three poems depicting scenes from Greek mythology, Szymanowski declared that he had “created a new style, a new form of expression in violin playing, something of epoch-making significance in that respect.” In the Mythes, Szymanowski blends “impressionistic” influences with innovative use of instrumental techniques, shimmering textures, and complex harmonies to produce fantastical, subtle shades of color and an enchanting range of expression.

Though Respighi was known for drawing inspiration from both early Italian music and ancient Rome, his Violin Sonata is written in a lush, Romantic language. Nevertheless, its final movement is based on the Passacaglia, a variation form which originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and was employed frequently in Baroque Italian compositions.

Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin (1914-1917) is a musical memorial modeled after a traditional Baroque French keyboard suite. Originally a six-movement suite for solo piano, each movement is dedicated to a friend of Ravel’s who died fighting in WWI.

Works on the “Chaos and Elegance” program include:

Program I

Janáček, Violin Sonata (summer 1914)

Debussy, Violin Sonata in G minor (1916-1917)

Elgar, Violin Sonata in E Minor, Op. 82 (1918)

Shostakovich, Violin Sonata in G Major, Op. 134 (1968)

Program II

Stravinsky, Suite Italienne, after Pulcinella (1919-1920 Pulcinella)

Szymanowski, Mythes: Three Poems, Op. 30 (spring 1915)

Ravel, Le Tombeau de Couperin, arr. Violin and Piano (1914-1917)

Respighi, Violin Sonata in B Minor (1917)

RE: BACH, FROM ANDRES TO ZORNRachel Lee Priday has curated two program options with

“Re: Bach,” her personal ode to the violin, an instrument whose lyrical power is second only to the human voice. In aiming to shed light on the violin as a complete concert instrument alone, Rachel Lee Priday explores the history and future of the solo violin repertoire, while featuring phenomenally virtuosic and varied music stretching from 1676 to 2018. With Bach as a cornerstone, the program centers upon a new commission from Timothy Andres, his first extended solo work for violin.

program offerings

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SURFACE TO AIR“Surface to Air” is a musical exploration of emotional terrains, built as a journey in perpetual motion from darkness into light. Commencing the program is Prokofiev’s epic masterpiece, the Violin Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 80, a riveting monument to futility and strife, brutality and tenderness. Chilling, whispered scales haunt the emotional soul of the work “like the wind in a graveyard.” From this dark vista of enclosure, “Surface to Air” journeys upward to landscapes of openness, spaciousness, and joyous freedom. Christopher Cerrone’s soaring Violin Sonata enfolds as one uplifting, harmonious crescendo that comes full circle, joining together the violin and piano as a single textural “hyper-instrument.” Its minimalist rhythmic drive finds a counterpart in John Adams’s Road Movies, which captures the motoric energy and relaxed meditation of a drive through America’s rolling landscape. In many ways a precursor to the Cerrone, Ravel’s stunningly sensual Violin Sonata evokes an incredible array of colors and temperatures, while detouring along its way for an exquisite take on the American blues before a sonorous and thrilling perpetuum mobile finale. In its maneuvering between darkness and light, and its sense of perpetual movement against the stillness of space, “Surface to Air” brings together works that conjure up images and arouse the sensory imagination to take flight.

Works to be performed on the “Surface to Air” program include:

Prokofiev, Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 80

Christopher Cerrone, Violin Sonata

John Adams, Road Movies

Ravel, Violin Sonata

program offerings (cont.)From a single instrument, and from a single harmonic progression, Bach constructs in the awe-inspiring Chaconne, like the processes of nature, a complex and universal reality that spans the depths of grief, wonder, and ecstatic joy. The Chaconne in its original form conveys the purity and power unique to the solitary violinist, and the meaning written into Bach’s manuscript of the Six Sonatas and Partitas: “Sei Solo,” or in English, “you are alone.”

Though one of a series of fourteen works for various solo instruments and voices, Berio’s bracing, knotty Sequenza VIII was an explicit tribute to Bach’s Chaconne.

John Zorn’s Passagen, written for Elliott Carter on his 103rd birthday, is “a brief history of solo violin music.” Wildly virtuosic, it contains fragments from Bach and Bartók’s solo sonatas, among others, and is based on the B-A-C-H motif (B-flat, A, C, B-natural) – a musical cryptogram that has interested composers from Schumann, Liszt and Brahms to Schoenberg, Schnittke, and Arvo Part.

Heinrich Biber’ Passacaglia, the final piece in a collection of fifteen Mystery Sonatas or Rosary Sonatas, is the oldest and earliest sustained work for unaccompanied violin before Bach’s Chaconne. It contains sixty-five statements of variations over a repeated descending bass pattern, which comes from the traditional hymn to the Guardian Angel.

The program closes with a new arrangement of a work by Ryan Francis, which requires Bach’s “Double” from the B minor Partita to be performed immediately preceding it: “Sillage,” or in French, the “wake, trail” or “lingering fragrance.”

Works on the “Re: Bach, from Andres to Zorn” program include:

Short Program

Bach, Chaconne, from Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004

Berio, Sequenza VIII

Timo Andres, New Commission

John Zorn, Passagen (2011)

Biber, Passacaglia in G Minor, from the “Mystery Sonatas”

Bach, Double from Partita No. 1 in B Minor, BWV 1002

Ryan Francis, Sillage (2007) with tape (new arrangement)

Long Program

Bach, Double from Partita No. 1 in B Minor, BWV 1002

Ryan Francis, Sillage (2007) with tape (new arrangement)

Biber, Passacaglia in G Minor, from the “Mystery Sonatas”

John Zorn, Passagen (2011)

Timo Andres, New Commission

Berio, Sequenza VIII

Bach, Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004

P H O T O B Y L I S A - M A R I E M A Z Z U C C O

RACHEL LEE PRIDAY violin

www.arielartists.com G booking@arielartists.comSPIRITS TO ENFORCE art to enchant

ARTISTSAriel

MASTER CLASS AND CHAMBER MUSIC WORKSHOP

Rachel has given master classes for students and groups of all

ages and levels around the country. Having studied with the late

pedagogue Dorothy DeLay, Rachel’s violinistic approach is rooted

in the American tradition, while her musicianship centers on an un-

derstanding of the score. She is eager to pass on her knowledge,

passion, and the many influences she received to the next genera-

tion. During master classes and coaching sessions, both public and

private, and for both individuals and chamber groups, Rachel will

work through a movement or two of the students’ choice, high-

lighting key concepts and principles to consider and apply.

LECTURE/DEMONSTRATIONS

Alongside each of her programs, Rachel is delighted to offer lec-

ture/demonstrations that provide context, deepen appreciation,

and illuminate fresh perspectives on the works performed, often

by drawing connections to literature and other artistic disciplines.

Examples include a talk on Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” Sonata and Leo

Tolstoy’s novella, the poetry of Paul Celan and Matthew Aucoin’s

Celan Fragments, and a narrative history of various approaches to

the violin and piano duo, with performance illustrations throughout.

THE ART OF VIOLIN

For violin studios, Rachel offers a special “Art of Violin” studio

class. Inspired by Laurence Lesser’s “Aural Heritage of String Play-

ing” course at the New England Conservatory, by her own many

“video nights” as a student of Itzhak Perlman, and by the PBS

series The Art of Violin, Rachel focuses this interactive class session

on how to use technique in the service of the music, with the aim

of developing distinctive musical character. Rachel and students

will discuss characteristics of historical great violinists and how we

might expand our aural palettes through careful study and experi-

mentation. Activities may include listening to recordings, watching

videos, discussing interpretations, and getting into the nitty-gritty

of violin sound and technique, all with the goal of expanding our

imaginative possibilities through the violin.

UP CLOSE

The audience is an integral part of every performance, and Ra-

chel loves the opportunity to meet audience members person-

ally through pre-concert talks, Q&A sessions, and post-concert

gatherings in the lobby or onstage. Audiences and presenters

can share reactions and ask Rachel questions about anything,

from specific details about the pieces performed to questions

about her life as a violinist.

EDUCATION/NAVIGATION

This Q&A focuses on successfully navigating the critical years

of musical study during high school and college. Topics to be

examined may include the university vs. conservatory debate,

whether to major in music in college, finding the best teacher

for your college years, and time management issues.

additional offerings

P H O T O B Y L I S A - M A R I E M A Z Z U C C O