OCTOBER 2011 VANITYFAIR.COM
FINE TUNED
Violinist Tim Fain plays like a virtuoso and thinks like a cinematographer. That’s why the 35-year-old musician will wrap his music in gorgeous imagery when he presents his latest concert program. Portals—Fain’s multi-media solo event—is billed as a “musical exploration of the human longing for connection in the digital age”; the centerpiece is the U.S. premiere of Philip Gloss’s “Partita for Solo Violin,” which the composer wrote for Fain. The show, which Fain kicks off at New York’s Symphony Space on September 24 and then takes on the road, is a smart mix of sound and vision for the Facebook generation, who love Björk and Beethoven with equal ardor. “Ever since I was young, I’ve had this desire to reach out,” says Fain. “I’m addicted to my iPhone as much as anyone, but I wanted to use technology to create something beautiful.” As Fain performs onstage, carefully synchronized film sequences provide a musical and visual counterpoint—one is of a pianist playing William Bolcom’s Graceful Ghost Rag to Fain’s accompaniment—as well as images of the violinist himself on an iPad and a laptop. Audience members become high-tech voyeurs in this private music-making process. It’s not surprising to find a touch of show business in Fain’s multi-media excursions. “I’ve got films running through my brain,” says the artist, who grew up in Los Angeles and last year appeared on-screen in Black Swan, accompanying Natalie Portman in a ballet sequence choreographed by Benjamin Millepied. Recalling the intense but gratifying rehearsals for the scene, Fain says, “We really knew Swan Lake after this film was done.”
—DAMIAN FOWLER