Classical Music Gets a Modern Update in the Hands of Violinist Tim Fain
by Molly Creeden
On a September day, violinist Tim Fain, who had arrived in Manhattan the previous evening from California, is still on West Coast time when we meet at a lunchtime spot, and is trying to order a breakfast egg and an orange juice in a sea of midtown salads. In a few hours, he and composer Philip Glass are flying to Rio to embark on a ten-day tour, which, if it bears any resemblance to their European engagements, will captivate and dazzle audiences. “One thing that really gets me going is the connection with the audience, breaking down boundaries,” he says, taking a sip of orange juice (no dice on the egg). “My goal is to take these classical pieces, which can be pretty complicated, and make them as simple and direct as possible and get across what I feel are the most important elements.”
Fain, who stands a lanky six-foot-two and holds a furious bow and a resolute expression when he plays, first picked up the violin at age six. He left Los Angeles for the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, followed by a master’s program at the Juilliard School. While his ascent in the world of classical music certainly hasn’t been hurt by his relationship with Glass (the two met while working on a performance of Leonard Cohen’s Book of Longing), it’s possible you first encountered him elsewhere: in the maniacal Tchaikovsky underpinning Natalie Portman’s footwork in Black Swan; as the sound of Richard Gere’s violin in Bee Season; as one of the cherubic voices in the background of Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun (“I sang in the boys’ choir when I was a kid. . . I feel like I’ve got movies running through my veins”) or, maybe, last winter at jeweler Erickson Beamon’s presentation, during which ballerinas from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy spun circles around Fain’s melodies. Or perhaps you remember him as the impromptu entertainment on a flight stalled on the runway in Minneapolis: “The very vivacious flight attendant noticed I had a violin,” he says, smiling. “So I played a fiddle tune and a little Bach movement in the aisle.”
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