RACHEL LEE PRIDAY violin

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“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

“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

“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 expres-sive 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

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.

Recent and upcoming highlights include concerto engagements with the Pacific Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Stamford Symphony, Greenville Symphony, Grand Junction Symphony, Johannesburg Philharmonic, Kwazulu-Natal Philharmonic, and Cape Town Philharmonic. Conductors Rachel has worked with recently include JoAnn Falletta, Carl St. Clair, Michael Morgan, Daniel Boico, Bernhard Gueller, Arjan Tien, Eckart Preu, and Leon Botstein.

Rachel’s 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, Ravinia’s “Rising Stars” Series, and UCSB Arts and Lectures. Recent highlights include a debut UK recital tour, recitals at the Sarasota Opera House, Lawrence University, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Series in Chicago, shows at Joe’s Pub and SubCulture in NYC, and an 8-recital tour of South Africa with pianist Bryan Wallick.

Last June, Rachel embarked on a three-city tour of China, where she combined outreach and performances at the Beijing Modern Music Festival, Tianjin May Festival, and Shenyang Conservatory. The tour marked the launch of a year-long association with the Asia/America New Music Institute; further appearances with AANMI include concerts at the Asia-Europe New Music Festival in Hanoi, Vietnam, the Utah Arts Festival in Salt Lake City, and the USC Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, CA.

Rachel and pianist David Kaplan, through a Harvard Fromm Music Foundation grant, recently commissioned a new work, Violin Sonata, from Pulitzer Prize Finalist Christopher Cerrone. As a Resident Artist with Metropolis Ensemble in NYC, she has also commissioned a forthcoming work by Scott Wollschleger for violin and chamber orchestra. Other recent highlights include extensive interdisciplinary collaborations with composer Matthew Aucoin at the Peabody-Essex Museum, with the Ballet San Jose, Symphony Silicon Valley, and a week-long run of the theatrical concert, Tchaikovsky: None But The Lonely Heart, with Ensemble for the Romantic Century at BAM.

A native of Chicago, Rachel began her violin studies at the age of four, and in 1996, moved to New York to study with the late pedagogue Dorothy DeLay. She continued her studies at the Juilliard School Pre-College Division with Itzhak Perlman. She holds a B.A. degree in English from Harvard University and an M.M. from the New England Conservatory, where she studied with Miriam Fried through its joint dual-degree program with Harvard College.

She performs on a Nicolo Gagliano violin (Naples, 1760), double-purfled with fleurs-de-lis, named Alejandro.

“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

“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

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RACHEL LEE PRIDAY violin

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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. Com-

mencing 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 uplift-

ing, 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 medita-

tion of a drive through America’s rolling landscape. In many ways a

precursor to the Cerrone, Ravel’s stunningly sensual Violin So-

nata 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 perpetu-

al 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 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

CHAOS AND ELEGANCE

In this program Rachel Lee Priday focuses on four different com-

posers during World War I and beyond who looked to the past in

crafting a distinctive musical language. Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne,

based on his 1920 neoclassical ballet Pulcinella, playfully injects

Baroque forms in the style of Pergolesi with touches of modern-

ist astringency. Of Pulcinella, Stravinsky wrote, “It was a backward

look, of course…but it was a look in the mirror, too.” Elgar’s in-

trospective Violin Sonata, written at the end of World War I during

a final spurt of creativity, has a nostalgic and autumnal quality: “I

fear it does not carry us any further,” the composer acknowledged,

“but it is full of golden sounds.” Though Respighi was known

for drawing inspiration from early Italian music and ancient

Rome, his Violin Sonata is written in a lush and Romantic lan-

guage. However, both Respighi’s and Shostakovich’s great Violin

Sonata base their final movement on the Passacaglia, a varia-

tion form which originated in early seventeenth-century Spain.

Shostakovich’s Sonata also 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.

Works on the “Chaos and Elegance” program include:

Stravinsky, Suite Italienne

Respighi, Violin Sonata in B Minor

Elgar, Violin Sonata in E Minor, Op. 82

Shostakovich, Violin Sonata in G Major, Op. 134

program offerings

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ARTISTSArielprogram offerings (cont.)

DELIRIOUS DISTORTION

In her “Delirious Distortion” program, Rachel Lee Priday presents

a rich array of music that explores the boundary between fantasy

and reality, vision and distortion. Schubert’s sublime Fantasy in C

Major, written in the last year of the composer’s life, provides a

counterpoint to both Messiaen’s Fantaisie, an early, surreal work

discovered after the composer’s death, as well as Rihm’s multi-

layered, shape-shifting Phantom und Eskapade. Traversing a wide

spectrum of styles – from holy minimalism (Pärt’s ”Mirror in Mir-

ror”), to the early avant-garde (Satie’s exotic and inventive Gym-

nopédie No. 1 and charming “Things Seen to the Right and the

Left (Without Glasses)”), to the present day (Sayo Kosugi’s rapid-

fire Delirious Distortion) – this program explores the edges of clarity.

Works on the “Delirious Distortion” program include:

Franz Schubert, Fantasy in C Major, D. 934

Wolfgang Rihm, Phantom und Eskapade

Arvo Pärt, Spiegel im Spiegel

Erik Satie, Gymnopedie No. 1 (arr. violin); Choses vues à droite et à gauche (sans lunettes)

Olivier Messiaen, Fantaisie for Violin and Piano

Sayo Kosugi, Delirious Distortion for Solo Violin

SONGS OF SEASONS

In Tennyson’s poem, “Flower in the crannied wall,” the poet articu-

lates a belief in the ultimate coherence between nature, the human

heart, and the entire universe, as a macrocosmos. In the “Songs of

Seasons” program, Rachel Lee Priday offers works that speak to this

pattern: from nature, song arises, inspiring music that expresses the

seasons of the heart. To begin, Beethoven’s Sonata No. 10 in G Ma-

jor, Op. 96 “The Cockcrow” opens with a gentle figure reminiscent

of a bird call, which develops into one of the most sublime pieces

ever written for violin and piano. Next are three works for solo violin.

Bright Sheng’s The Stream Flows is based on a well-known Chinese

Yun-nan folk song:

The Stream Flows

The rising moon shines brightly

It reminds me of love in the mountains

Like the moon, you walk in the sky,

As the crystal stream flows down the mountain.

A clear breeze blows up the hill,

My love, do you hear I am calling you?

With Ernst’s Variations on the “The Last Rose of Summer,” a pop-

ular Irish tune and poem by Thomas Moore, the program edges

toward the autumnal; it then journeys to winter with Ysaÿe’s

Chant d’Hiver. Circling back to the violin and piano duo, the pro-

gram concludes with a work in cyclic form. In Brahms’s Sonata

No. 1 in G Major, Op. 78 “Regen,” a “rain” motif borrowed from

Brahms’s Op. 59 songs “Regenlied” and “Nachklang” appears

throughout the sonata, becoming in the middle movement a

funeral march.

Works to be performed on the “Songs of Seasons” program include:

Beethoven, Sonata No. 10 in G Major, Op. 96 “The Cockcrow”

Bright Sheng, The Stream Flows (solo violin)

Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst, Variations on “The Last Rose of Summer” (solo violin)

Eugène Ysaÿe, Chant d’Hiver, Op. 15

Brahms, Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 78 “Rain

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RACHEL LEE PRIDAY violin

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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

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