Please Note: There are two performances per night!
Performance #1
Pre-Show Reception: 6:00PM - 7:00PM
Concert: 7:00PM - 8:00PM
Performance #2
Pre-Show Reception: 7:30PM - 8:30PM
Concert: 8:30PM - 9:30PM
Death of Classical is thrilled to welcome audiences to a new venue: the vaulted, intimate Christ Chapel at Riverside Church. And we can think of no one better to consecrate this space than the singular Rachel Barton Pine, one of the world’s most acclaimed violinists and a passionate advocate who uses her platform to create opportunities for others.
For American Partitas, Pine brings together two lifelong pursuits: her profound devotion to Bach and her boundless curiosity about American music. Movements from Bach’s three solo violin partitas – including the towering, transcendent Chaconne – meet contemporary dance suites written for her by Billy Childs, Darol Anger, and Daniel Bernard Roumain, drawing on jazz, American fiddle traditions, and hip-hop. What emerges is a dance across the centuries, tracing the rhythm and movements of different cultures and times, into a single swirling sonic architecture.
A singular talent and a solo instrument that dances and sings multitudes, in a chapel whose arches reach toward the infinite.
What You Can Expect
For the pre-show hour-long reception, you'll enjoy cocktails, wine, charcuterie and snacks overlooking the city in the gorgeous tenth floor tower room at Riverside Church (all included in ticket price - it's enough food to stave off starvation, but you'll still probably want a bit more of a meal before or after the show). Then we'll descend to Christ Chapel for an hour-long performance – seating for the audience is general admission, but there are no bad seats given the intimacy of the space!
J.S. Bach – I. Allemanda and Double from Partita No. 1 in B minor, BWV 1002
Billy Childs – I. Prelude and Allegro from Four Portraits for Violin
J.S. Bach – V. Ciaccona from Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004
Darol Anger – IV. Rag from American Partita No. 1
J.S. Bach – I. Preludio, III. Gavotte en Rondeau, and VI. Gigue from Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006
Daniel Bernard Roumain – Dance I and Prayer III from Hip-Hop Dances and Prayers
Rachel Barton Pine has spent her life inside Bach’s music. She is the youngest person ever to win the Gold Medal at the J.S. Bach International Violin Competition in Leipzig, Germany, and her recording and sheet music edition of the complete Sonatas and Partitas reflect decades of study, performance and discovery. Alongside that devotion runs an equally deep curiosity about American music, from fiddle traditions and blues to jazz, spirituals and hip-hop.
At the heart of both is movement. Bach’s partitas are dance suites: allemandes, courantes, sarabandes, gigues and other forms whose rhythms have their origins in the body. Even when Bach’s music becomes extraordinarily intricate, that sense of physical motion remains underneath it. Pine hears something similar across American traditions, where rhythm, gesture and dance are inseparable from musical expression.
Pine is also a passionate advocate for accessibility and disability inclusion in the arts, work that has shaped how she thinks about what audiences see and hear. In Bach’s writing for solo violin, a single instrument creates an entire musical architecture. Melody, bass line, harmony and counterpoint emerge from four strings, suggesting many voices sounding at once.
In this program, Pine places movements from three of Bach’s partitas in conversation with selections from the American Partitas, contemporary dance suites written for her by Billy Childs, Darol Anger and Daniel Bernard Roumain. Each composer begins, as Bach did, with music grounded in movement, but draws on a different musical language: jazz, American fiddle traditions and hip-hop. Across centuries and traditions, dance becomes common ground, a way for distinct musical identities to speak to one another without losing what makes each one itself.