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Tim Fain (photo by Briana Blasko).[/caption]
By Annette Hinkle
If you’re one of those people who think classical music is for an older generation and performed primarily by overdressed musicians in stuffy concert halls, you obviously haven’t heard Tim Fain.
Or maybe you have — you just don’t realize it.
Mr. Fain is a violinist who challenges both convention and expectation when it comes to defining what it means to be a classical musician today. He’s the violin player you see accompanying Natalie Portman on-screen as she dances in Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 film “Black Swan.” He was the off-screen “violin double” for actor Chiwetel Ejiofor’s whose character Solomon Northup played the instrument in “12 Years a Slave,” and he did the same for Richard Gere in the film “Bee Season.”
Young, dynamic and energized by the notion of exploring what it means to be a performer in the 21st century, in short, Mr. Fain is everything you don’t expect in a classical musician. This Friday, Mr. Fain comes to the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill to kick off the museum’s spring 2015 Salon Series, four upcoming concerts by young, award-winning classical musicians performing in the intimate setting.
“This is really going to be an unplugged kind of evening,” says Mr. Fain who expects to share a range of musical offerings with the Parrish audience, from classical favorites he has loved for years to contemporary compositions written specifically for him by Philip Glass, all played on a violin made by Francesco Gobetti in 1717 which is on loan to him through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.
While his creative leanings may be turning classical music on its head, Mr. Fain insists he isn’t setting out to save the genre — classical music is doing fine on it’s own, he stresses. It’s just that the unique way in which Mr. Fain views the possibilities in performance defines who he is — an artist who moves easily between musical styles and visual mediums.
It all makes perfect sense when you consider that he grew up surrounded by a range of influences — both musical and otherwise.
“When I was a kid I was listening to the radio all the time and incessantly changing the stations,” notes Mr. Fain. “One of the first pieces I listened to was Mozart’s Magic Flute when my parents brought me home from the hospital. But I also listened to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and jazz and everything else on the radio.”
“I think that stuck with me,” he adds. “Not to mention growing up in LA, where I was surrounded by the film industry.”
Mr. Fain’s love of music merged with the film business early on. As a member of a boy’s choir when he was young, he recalls getting a whole week off school in order to record the soundtrack for Stephen Spielberg’s film “Empire of the Sun,” with composer John Williams conducting the orchestra.
It was an early and somewhat prophetic glimpse at the way music and film would meld in his adult life. In his performance piece “Portals,” Mr. Fain does just that — merging music with a range of visual and aural platforms, as well as several unique forms of expression.
“It’s a wonderful thing about performing music, it’s something that I always felt compelled actively and urgently to share,” says Mr. Fain. “For me, performing is an act of sharing. It’s communion in a way — communicating with people and reaching out and establishing this connection. It’s meeting at a place of empathy.”
And “Portals,” which Mr. Fain describes as an exploration of the human longing for connection in the digital age, is all about communication. The piece, which premiered in New York in 2011, interweaves films by Kate Hackett (including performances by pianist Nicholas Britell) with dance films choreographed by Benjamin Millepied (choreographer of the ballet sequences in “Black Swan”) and the words of Leonard Cohen which are spoken by Fred Child. The piece also includes the music of William Bolcom and Aaron Jay Kernis and composers Nico Muhly, Keven Puts and Lev Zhurbin
The centerpiece of “Portals” is Mr. Fain playing the seven movement “Partita for Solo Violin,” which composer Philip Glass wrote specifically for him. But in a unique twist, despite the number of collaborators who can be seen and heard during the performance, Mr. Fain is the only performer who appears live on stage during the piece.
“It’s a celebration of American culture and composers,” explains Mr. Fain. “I wanted to capture this feeling of a film before the concert and different characters moving in and out of different worlds — merging the Internet and the stage with other artists signing on and joining via Skype.”
Mr. Fain explains that Mr. Millepied was the central collaborator in “Portals” and he knew that he wanted to feature Mr. Glass’s piece as the anchor for the performance. But it was also important to him that he include a spoken word element in the piece as well and so he turned to Leonard Cohen for his poetry.
“I knew I wanted to work with Leonard Cohen to craft a text that would connect the piece together in short spoken interludes,” explains Mr. Fain. “Something Leonard speaks about so lyrically is loneliness and a disconnect from the world. I think Leonard did get a kick out of having his words put into such a modern concept as webcams and Skype.”
So while “Portals” speaks not only of the possibility for connection in the digital age, it also hints at the isolation that can result from an over-reliance on technology.
“I wanted to explore what it means to be an artist in the digital age. It’s a solo show in some ways, but in others ways it’s richly collaborative with the film of the dancers and Fred Child, the actor reading passages from Leonard Cohen,” says Mr. Fain. “I’m the only live musician on the stage in the flesh. During some of the more lyrical musical sections, the pianist is life-size next to me. I've had people come up and say they forgot he wasn’t on stage with me.”
“It’s fascinating and a little horrifying,” he adds. “That’s what I wanted to create in ‘Portals.’”
And if his piece ultimately leads younger audiences to discover an appreciation for classical music, than all the better.
“It’s not like I set out to save classical music — it’s here, people play it, it’s thriving,” says Mr. Fain. “But I’m happy people seem to think ‘Portals’ has brought in a lot of people from my generation.”
Salon Series with violinist Tim Fain is this Friday, April 17 at 6 p.m. at the Parrish Art Museum (279 Montauk Highway, Water Mill). Admission is $20 ($10 for Parrish members). Upcoming Salon Series concerts include pianist Kimball Gallagher on April 24, pianist Daria Rabotkina with the Wasmuth String Quartet on May 1 and pianist Yoonie Han on May 8. For more information call 283-2118 or visit parrishart.org.
