Rachel Barton

Rachel Barton Pine (born October 11, 1974) is a violinist from Chicago. Considered a child prodigy at the violin, she started playing at the age of 3 and a half. She played at many renowned venues through her child and teen years. She currently resides in Chicago with her husband Greg (a computer entrepreneur and former minor league baseball pitcher), plays regularly with the Chicago Symphony and on her own, tours worldwide, and has an active recording career.

She has appeared as a soloist with orchestras around the world under conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Zubin Mehta, Neeme J?rvi, Marin Alsop, Semyon Bychkov, Pl?cido Domingo and Jos? Serebrier. She has also appeared with Daniel Barenboim, Christoph Eschenbach and William Warfield. Her festival appearances include Marlboro, Ravinia, Montreal, Salzburg, and Salzburg's Mozartwoche at the invitation of Franz Welser-M?st. Barton Pine performs chamber music as part of Trio Settecento with David Schrader and John Mark Rozendaal. She has often performed at schools and on rock music radio stations in an effort to interest younger audiences in classical music. Her current principal instrument is the 1742 ?ex-Soldat? violin of Guarneri del Gesu. For 17th and 18th century pieces she prefers to use an unaltered 1770 instrument of Nicol? Gagliano I.

Her musical interests extend well beyond classical to Baroque, folk, Celtic, rock and jazz. She regularly instructs at Mark O'Connor's annual summer fiddle camp, and in 2004 released a CD in collaboration with Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser. Her taste in rock runs to heavy metal, with AC/DC, Anthrax, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Megadeth, Metallica, Mot?rhead, Pantera, Slayer and Van Halen being among her favorites. She has met and jammed with a number of these, and in 1997 released a heavy-metal-inspired CD. In Feb. 2009, she joined the doom metal band Earthen Grave, where she performs on a 7-string Viper electric violin.
Bill McGlaughlin called her a "musical Pac-Man" for her ability to take in and perform so many different kinds of music.