Despite having performed all over the world, violinist Elizabeth Pitcairn will do something she’s never done before when she travels to Sedona for the Sedona International Film Festival.
“I’m very excited about coming to Sedona,” she said in a phone interview earlier this week. “Sedona has been on my bucket list for at least the last 15 to 20 years.”
Pitcairn will be performing on Saturday, June 12, at the Sedona Performing Arts Center beginning at 7 p.m. Her performance will be preceded by the film “The Red Violin,” which was inspired by the story of Pitcairn’s 1720 Stradivarius.
“We were so lucky that Elizabeth Pitcairn’s dear friends, Wayne and Patti Holum [who live here in Sedona], came to us and asked if we would ever want to have a performance here on the actual red violin by the violin virtuoso who owns it. I was flabbergasted and said ‘absolutely yes’ and asked if they could connect us to Elizabeth to make it happen. In less than 24 hours we had the whole thing arranged,” said Patrick Schweiss, executive director of the film festival, which will be held June 12 through 20.
Pitcairn’s performance will include pieces by Gershwin, Fritz Kreisler and the theme from “Schindler’s List.” But for her, there’s far more to a performance than just the music.
“I love the connection I have with the audience,” she said. “Smaller shows enable me to have more interaction with them. I enjoy the larger recitals in huge halls, but I’ve always enjoyed the smaller, more intimate venues. So for those coming to see me in Sedona, come armed with questions.”
According to her official biography, Pitcairn approached her mother at the tender age of 3 to play the violin. Her mother, an accomplished cellist, encouraged her daughter and it wasn’t long before she was playing before audiences. In fact, she was performing by the time she was 8.
“Pitcairn made her debut with orchestra at age 14 performing the Saint-Saëns Concerto, and has since appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Academy of Music and at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in the year 2000 with the New York String Orchestra in her New York debut,” her biography states. “She has since performed at Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Kimmel Center, Saratoga Performing Arts Center and the Fisher Center at Bard College.”
In 1990, when she was 17, Pitcairn’s grandfather purchased a violin made in 1720 by Antonio Stradivari for her at auction for $1.7 million — a small percentage of what it might fetch on the market these days.
Known as the Red Violin, it was the inspiration for the eponymous film, which was released in 1997. The film, which starred Samuel L. Jackson, told the story of the long history of the violin, also known as the Red Mendelssohn, including how it survived World War II and ended up in the hands of a New York industrialist 45 years prior to the purchase by Pitcairn’s grandfather.
“When people ask me how accurate the film is, I tell them, ‘It’s history we knew nothing about,’” she said laughing, noting there are large gaps in the violin’s journey that are unknown.
Even though she was just a teen when she was presented this amazing gift, Pitcairn said the gesture was not lost on her youth.
“I fully appreciated it right away,” she said, adding that these days she travels with the violin and security guards. “It was so incredible. I kept asking myself how I got so lucky. I knew right away that I wanted to do great things with it.”
She said a Stradivarius is known for three things — its sound, projection and ease of execution. She said it truly has it all and checks all the boxes for any concert violinist.
Because of its age, provenance and cost, when a tune-up is needed, there’s more to it than taking a Stradivarius to your local music store. Last year, since live performances were out of the question, Pitcairn felt it was a good time for the Red Violin to be serviced, which should be done every 100 years. The process took nine months to complete.
“When I got it back, I fell in love with it all over again,” she said.
For more information on Pitcairn and her famous violin, visit elizabethpitcairn.com or for the festival, sedonafilmfestival.com.
