In his 32 years as a music critic, Howard Reich has seen a lot of miraculous performances, but when he saw Rachel Barton Pine take to the stage recently in Santa Fe, he knew it was something special. Yet it wasn’t until she sat down to sign CDs, after the program, that Howard recognized the scope of what he had witnessed.
“In that moment,” Howard recalls, “the pain and peril of her daily life, as well as the career frustrations she has endured since her accident, seemed to melt away.”
The basic outline of Rachel Barton Pine’s story is known–that she and her treasured violin barely survived a horrible 1995 Metra accident–but when she swept up the audience that night in Santa Fe, they seemed as convinced as Barton herself that the past had been erased.
Howard and photographer Steve Kagan knew otherwise, and that dramatic tale is this week’s cover story, “Facing the music.” The pair spent months last year with Rachel and her husband, Greg Pine. They witnessed rehearsals and, most revealing, just hung out with Rachel, and Greg, in their apartment and talked. In addition, in an attempt to reconstruct Rachel’s past, Howard pored over more than 60 boxes of court records.
In the end, what emerges is a story of triumph–of the violinist’s artistic achievement, certainly, but also of personal character and tenacity. Howard was struck by her ebullience and optimism. “But I was startled to learn how much she has endured,” he reflects. “She brings so much vitality and hope to the stage that no one would have guessed all that she has undergone.”
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etaylor@tribune.com
