Neighborhood Classics Presents Violinist Rachel Barton Pine Tonight

Neighborhood Classics presents celebrated violinist Rachel Barton Pine in concert tonight, November 18 at 7pm at P.S. 321 in Brooklyn (180 Seventh Ave.). Pine will perform Bach's Sonata in G Minor and selections from Paganini's 24 Caprices, Op. 1, plus new works dedicated to her from New York composers Mohammed Fairouz ("For Egypt" from Sonata for Unaccompanied Violin Native Informant, from 2011) and Earl Maneein (Be12(OH)12(BTB)4 Metal Organic Framework, from 2014). The concert will be hosted by Neighborhood Classics Founder and Artistic Director Simone Dinnerstein. All ticket sales for this one-hour, family-friendly concert benefit P.S. 321.

In addition, in anticipation of Rachel Barton Pine's performance and the opening of this year's concert series, Neighborhood Classics will organize a Violin Invasion at P.S. 321 on Monday, November 17 from 9am-3pm. More than 20 volunteer violinists from all over the New York City area will perform throughout the school in its hallways, classrooms, cafeteria, and other spaces, saturating P.S. 321 with the sounds of solo violin. Participants include violinist improviser Gregory Huebner, students from the Special Music School in Manhattan and violin teacher Brian Krinke, plus middle and high school students of respected Brooklyn violin teacher Kelly Howard. In addition, one of the most sought after luthiers, Sam Zygmuntowicz, will be giving presentations about violin making.

Neighborhood Classics has previously organized two similar all-school happenings -- a Bach Invasion featuring more than 20 cellists performing solo Bach, and a Renaissance Revolution! which brought early music specialists to perform Baroque and Renaissance music throughout the school. Watch SymphonyNow's coverage of the Bach Invasion: http://bit.ly/BachInvasion. Media coverage of P.S. 321's Violin Invasion is welcome with advance notice. Contact Christina Jensen, 646.536.7864.

About Rachel Barton Pine: In both art and life, violinist Rachel Barton Pine has an extraordinary ability to connect with people. Celebrated as a leading interpreter of great classical works, her performances combine her gift for emotional communication and her scholarly fascination with research. Audiences are thrilled by her dazzling technique, lustrous tone, and infectious joy in music-making.

This season Pine performs concertos by Barber, Britten, Bruch, Dvo?ák, Glazunov, Mendelssohn, Mozart and Vieuxtemps and will play all 24 Paganini Caprices live. In January, Pine celebrates her AVIE Records release of the five Mozart Violin concertos and Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante recorded with The Academy of St Martin in the Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner which features Pine's own cadenzas. Her recent Violin Lullabies with pianist Matthew Hagle debuted at number one on the Billboard classical chart.

Pine has appeared as soloist with many of the world's most prestigious ensembles, including the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic, and the Netherlands Radio Kamer Filharmonie. She has worked with such renowned conductors as Charles Dutoit, Zubin Mehta, Erich Leinsdorf, Neeme Järvi and Marin Alsop. Pine's Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation assists young artists through projects including the Instrument Loan Program, Grants for Education and Career, and a curricular series in development with the University of Michigan: The String Student's Library of Music by Black Composers. She is a Life Trustee of the Music Institute of Chicago and received the Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award for her work in music education. She performs on the "ex-Bazzini, ex-Soldat," Joseph Guarnerius del Gesu (Cremona 1742).

About Neighborhood Classics: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein founded the Neighborhood Classics series in 2009 at P.S. 321, the school that her son attended and where her husband teaches, and expanded the series to P.S. 142 on Manhattan's Lower East Side in 2010. Neighborhood Classics builds relationships at a local level between neighborhoods and musicians. ??

These one-hour, family-friendly performances, which are hosted by Dinnerstein and feature musicians she has admired and collaborated with during her career, are open to the public and raise funds for the schools. The musicians performing donate their time and talent to the program, and the concerts are organized and administered by parent volunteers and faculty members. In 2012, composer James Matheson joined the Neighborhood Classics team as Artistic Director at P.S. 142.

In addition to evening concerts, Neighborhood Classics stages all-school happenings - including a Bach Invasion and a Renaissance Revolution at P.S. 321- which immerse the school in music, with dozens of musicians performing in all of the school's classrooms throughout the day.

"This concert series is about bringing communities together around music," Dinnerstein explains. "It is a way for students, parents, teachers, and neighbors to gather in a familiar and comfortable setting to listen to great music." All of the performances take place in the evenings and on weekends, so that families may attend together.?

Neighborhood Classics has already raised enough funds to bring back the fourth grade band program at P.S. 142. At P.S. 321, proceeds benefit the school's PTA, which helps to fund art, chess, band, and chorus programs.

Since 2009, the following top-tier musicians have been presented by Neighborhood Classics: pianist Simone Dinnerstein, clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, marimbist Mika Stoltzman, cellist Maya Beiser, pianist Pablo Ziegler, cellist Zuill Bailey, pianist Valentina Lisitsa, harpist Bridget Kibbey, violinist Maria Bachmann, cellist Wendy Sutter, Face the Music (a teenage new music group), lutist Paul O'Dette, pianist Kathleen Supové, cellist Clive Greensmith, pianist Lafayette Harris, Jr., Joseph C. Phillips & Numinous, Contemporaneous, Cypress String Quartet, Chiara String Quartet, and the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME).

For more information, visit www.neighborhoodclassics.com.