Trio Settecento
 

Trio Settecento Biography

Trio Settecento
Rachel Barton Pine, baroque violin, viola d'amore
John Mark Rozendaal, viola da gamba, baroque 'cello
David Schrader, harpsichord, positiv organ, fortepiano

Praised by Fanfare for its "wonderful, vital and buoyant performances," Trio Settecento's passionate and authoritative interpretations renew the pleasures of hearing beloved music from the Age of Enlightenment while also revealing the delights of new discoveries. Imagination, vigor, technical polish and historical insight have made the Trio's performances appealing to audiences and critics alike.

Trio Settecento's new album, A German Bouquet, was released by Cedille Records in September 2009. It features a selection of German Baroque era works with popular pieces by Bach and Buxtehude, as well as rarely heard repertoire by Johann Schop, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Georg Muffat, Johann Philipp Krieger, Philipp Heinrich Erlebach and Johann Georg Pisendel. This CD follows the group's highly successful An Italian Sojourn in 2007, which includes baroque sonatas by Castelllo, Stradella, Corelli, Veracini and others. Wrote Gramophone of An Italian Sojourn, "There isn't a piece that doesn't impress. This is as good a collection for a newcomer to the Baroque as it is for those who want to hear these works performed at a high level."

Trio Settecento will continue to explore Europe's regional dialects in baroque music with future albums of music from France and the British Isles. Pine, Rozendaal and Schrader view these albums as "recital discs," presenting on CD the same type of program the Trio would play in concert.

Trio Settecento was formed after Pine, Rozendaal and Schrader came together in 1996 to record the complete violin sonatas of George Frederick Handel. The Trio's 2009-2010 season includes appearances at Columbia University in New York City, the University of Vermont in Burlington and the Chicago Early Music Festival. The Trio made its New York City debut at The Frick Collection in August, 2006, which was recorded for broadcast on WNYC. The Trio has also appeared at the Boston Early Music Festival and the Music Institute of Chicago's Baroque Chamber Music Festival, as well as other performances around the U.S.

All three members of Trio Settecento are dedicated pedagogues. They frequently give workshops and master classes at community music schools and universities and lead pre-concert discussions before their performances.

About Rachel Barton Pine

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine has an extraordinary gift for connecting with her audiences. She has received worldwide acclaim for her virtuosic technical mastery, lustrous tone and perceptive performances. Her passion for research allows her to bring historically-informed interpretations to her diverse repertoire, and her work as a philanthropist continues to inspire the next generation of artists.

Pine has appeared as soloist with many of the world's most prestigious orchestras, including the Chicago, Montreal, Atlanta and Baltimore Symphonies; Buffalo and Rochester Philharmonics; and the Philadelphia and Louisville Orchestras. Overseas, she has performed with the Vienna, New Zealand, Iceland and Budapest Symphonies; Mozarteum, Scottish, and Israel Chamber Orchestras; and Belgian National Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic. She has worked with such renowned conductors as Charles Dutoit, Zubin Mehta, Erich Leinsdorf, Neeme JŠrvi, Marin Alsop and Placido Domingo. Her festival appearances have included Marlboro, Ravinia, Montreal and Salzburg and she performs regularly with New York's Jupiter Chamber Players.

Pine holds prizes from several leading competitions, including a gold medal at the 1992 J. S. Bach International Violin Competition in Leipzig, Germany, making her the first American and, at age 17, the youngest performer to win this honor. Other top awards came from the Queen Elisabeth (Brussels, 1993), Kreisler (Vienna, 1992), Szigeti (Budapest, 1992), and Montreal (1991) international violin competitions. She won the prize for interpretation of the Paganini Caprices at both the 1993 Paganini International Violin Competition in Genoa and the Szigeti Competition.

"One of the rare mainstream performers with a total grasp of Baroque style and embellishment" (Fanfare) and "a most accomplished Baroque violinist, fully the equal of the foremost specialists" (Gramophone), Pine has been involved in historically-informed performances of early music since age 14. As a performer on baroque violin, renaissance violin, viola d'amore and rebec, she has collaborated with leading artists including David Douglass, Elizabeth Wright, Luc Beausejour, Marilyn McDonald and Gesa Kordes and has worked with groups including Ars Antigua, the Newberry Consort (in Chicago and at the Madison Early Music Festival), Baroque Band, Callipygian Players, Temple of Apollo and the Chicago Baroque Ensemble. Her baroque violin performances include the Montreal Chamber Music Festival, Marlboro Music (the festival's first ever baroque violin performance), St. Paul Sunday, Live from WFMT and Oberlin Conservatory. Pine was recently named to the Board of Directors of Early Music America.

Her prolific discography includes Solo Baroque, an album of unaccompanied German music by Biber, Westhoff, Pisendel, and Bach, Beethoven & Clement Violin Concertos, recorded with The Royal Philharmonic conducted by JosŽ Serebrier; American Virtuosa: Tribute to Maud Powell, with pianist Matthew Hagle; Scottish Fantasies for Violin and Orchestra, with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and Brahms & Joachim Violin Concertos with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Pine writes her own cadenzas and often performs her own arrangements. With The Rachel Barton Pine Collection of Original Compositions, Arrangements, Cadenzas and Editions, she became the first living composer and only female to be part of Carl Fischer's "Masters Collection" series. She is Music Advisor and Editor of Maud Powell Favorites, the first published compilation of transcriptions, cadenzas and music closely associated with Powell.

Pine is committed to encouraging the next generation. Her Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation assists young artists through various projects including the Instrument Loan Program, Grants for Education and Career, Global HeartStrings and The String Student's Library of Music by Black Composers.

"Pine delivers one of the most appealing baroque violin tones I've ever heard. . . . She shows extraordinary mastery of ornamentation and obviously has worked out the most subtle expressive mannerisms with great care." (ClassicsToday.com) For more about Rachel Barton Pine please visit www.rachelbartonpine.com.

About John Mark Rozendaal

John Mark Rozendaal specializes in performing and teaching stringed instrument music from the Baroque and Renaissance eras. As founding Artistic Director of Chicago Baroque Ensemble, Rozendaal performed and led seven seasons of subscription concerts, educational programs, radio broadcasts, and recordings for the Cedille and Centaur labels. Rozendaal served as principal 'cellist of The City Musick and Basically Bach, and has performed both solo and continuo roles with many period instrument ensembles including the Newberry Consort, Orpheus Band, The King's Noyse/Boston Early Music Festival Violin Band, Parthenia, The New York Consort of Viols, Repast, Four Nations Ensemble and the Catacoustic Consort.

Rozendaal's viola da gamba playing has been praised as "splendid" (Chicago Tribune), and "breathtaking" (Chicago Sun-Times). He is founder and director of the Viola da Gamba Dojo classes based in Manhattan.

Rozendaal's first solo album, Breaking the Ground, on Centaur Records includes divisions and preludes by English composer Christopher Simpson (c. 1605-1669), performed with David Schrader. He performs on a rare viola da gamba made by William Turner in 1650, and an 18th-century Tyrolian violoncello. For more about John Mark Rozendaal please visit www.jmrozendaal.com.

About David Schrader

Equally at home in front of a harpsichord, organ, piano, or fortepiano, David Schrader is "truly an extraordinary musician ... (who) brings not only the unfailing right technical approach to each of these different instruments, but always an imaginative, fascinating musicality to all of them" (Norman Pelligrini, WFMT, Chicago). A performer of wide ranging interests and accomplishments, Schrader has performed with the Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco and Colorado Symphonies and appeared as soloist at four national conventions of the American Guild of Organists (1984, 1994, 1998 and 2006). He has also performed at the prestigious Irving Gilmore Keyboard Festival (playing separate concerts on organ, harpsichord and clavichord), and at the Ravinia Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Oulunsalo Soi Music Festival in Oulu, Finland, Michigan Mozartfest, Boston Early Music Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Connecticut Early Music Festival, Manitou Music Festival, and as soloist and conductor at the Woodstock (Illinois) Mozart Festival.

A resident of Chicago, Schrader performs regularly with Music of the Baroque, the Newberry Consort, and Bach Week in Evanston. He has also appeared with Chicago Chamber Musicians, Contempo (f.k.a. the Contemporary Chamber Players), the Chicago Baroque Ensemble and The City Musick. He is a frequent guest on the "Live From WFMT" series of broadcast in-studio performances and a founding member of Baroque Band, Chicago's new period-instrument orchestra.

Schrader is on the faculty of Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts. For nearly thirty years, he has been the organist of Chicago's Church of the Ascension. His discography includes 19 albums for Cedille Records and a recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations on the Forces of Virtue label. For more about David Schrader please visit www.davidschrader.com.

September 2009 — PLEASE DESTROY ALL PREVIOUSLY DATED MATERIALS