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A Long-Awaited Collaboration Takes Shape
Violinist Rachel Barton Pine and the Grammy-winning Pacifica Quartet are finally realizing a musical dream more than two decades in the making. While they’ve each built remarkable international careers, this marks their first full album together — an exciting collaboration rooted in deep history, shared mentorship, and artistic kinship.
Rachel and the members of Pacifica grew up, musically, side by side. Pine studied violin with Anita and Roland Vamos from age ten to 17, developing alongside their son, cellist Brandon Vamos, and eventual daughter-in-law, violinist Simin Ganatra, both founding members of the Pacifica Quartet.
Rachel Barton Pine reflected, “Playing chamber music with world-class colleagues is always a special treat, but when they’re dear friends, it’s even more magical.”
On July 11, Cedille Records will release French Impressions: Chamber Music by Chausson & Taillefere, featuring Pine, pianist Orion Weiss, and the Pacifica Quartet. These expressive French chamber works not only showcase their interpretive depth, but also highlight the warm musical rapport between longtime friends. The program will feature Ernst Chausson’s Concert for violin, piano, and string quartet, Op. 21 and the 1919 String Quartet plus works for violin and piano by 20th-century French composer Germaine Tailleferre. Tailleferre was the only woman in the celebrated group of composers known as “Les Six.” Her alluring music is a response to both the heavy German Romanticism of Richard Wagner and the dense chromaticism and lush textures of Claude Debussy.
This album, born of decades-long friendship and a shared musical heritage, is a testament to the impact of your support. Thanks to Cedille’s donor-supported mission, artists like Rachel and Pacifica can pursue projects driven not by commercial trends, but by artistic passion.
Recommended
Pacifica Quartet’s final album in the American Collections trilogy – American Portraits. Bringing together touchstones of the American repertoire, American Portraits features some of the most canonical American chamber works alongside world premiere recordings of two newly commissioned works.
Winner of Cedille Records’ 2025 Emerging Artist Competition, Chicago-born oboist Oliver Talukder makes his solo recording debut with Briefly Gorgeous. Joined by pianist Moriah Trenk, Talukder presents an album inspired by themes of identity, love, family, and belonging. Drawing on his Mexican and Bengali heritage and his Chicago upbringing, the program explores where classical music intersects with Latino and South Asian traditions, creating a musical portrait shaped by Talukder’s unique story.
To celebrate the Oct. 9 release of American Portraits, the Pacifica Quartet‘s 18th album for Cedille, a playlist with a track from each of its Cedille albums, in chronological order, starting with its very first CD in 1999.