Tim Fain 

is an American violinist, best known for his performances in the movie Black Swan and his
work with American composer Philip Glass.

Contents

 1Early life and education

 2Live Performances
 3Work in Film
 4Work with Philip Glass
 5Work in Music and Technology
 6Compositions
 7Awards and honors
 8Discography
 9References
 10External links

Early life and education[edit]

A native of Santa Monica, California,[1] Fain is the son of Gordon and Margery Fain. Tim began
studying violin at age 7 with his father, a neurophysiologist at UCLA, and at age 10, he
performed Beethoven’s Spring Sonata for his 5th-grade classmates.
While living with his family in Cambridge, UK during middle school, Fain studied under Haroutune
Bedelian at the Royal Conservatory of Music in London.
After returning to the US for high school, Fain attended Crossroads School for the Arts and
Sciences in Santa Monica. He also participated in a pre-college program for
violin masterclasses and lessons at the Colburn School.
He received formal higher education in music at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and The
Juilliard School.[2] During his education, Fain studied and collaborated under prominent musicians
and pedagogues such as Victor Danchenko,[3] Felix Galimir, Richard Goode and Robert Mann.
As a young instrumentalist, Fain launched his career with Young Concert Artists and was awarded
the Avery Fisher Career Grant.[2]

Live Performances[edit]
In 2007, Fain performed Aaron Jay Kernis' violin concerto Lament and Prayer with the Baltimore
Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop.[4]
He performed Philip Glass' Concerto No. 2, "The American Four Seasons" with the Pittsburgh
Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Christoph König.[5]
Fain reunited in 2006 with musicians from his alma mater, Curtis Symphony Orchestra, to perform
Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D Major, conducted by Otto-Werner Mueller in Philadelphia at
the Kimmel Center.[6]
Fain was a member of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center from 2000 to 2002 and has
performed with the society on multiple occasions since.
In 2015 he performed works by Schumann, Lasser, and Bach alongside Simone
Dinnerstein at National Sawdust. Fain has performed several other times with Dinnerstein.[7]
In 2015 Fain guest-conducted and performed the solo violin for Max Richter’s Vivaldi Recomposed
and Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons with the Spanish National Orchestra at the Reina Sofía
Museum in Madrid.[8]
Also in 2015, Fain performed for the 14th Dalai Lama on his 80th Birthday at the Peak Mind
Foundation Summit.[9]
Fain appeared at the 2019 KIND gala alongside Daily Show host Trevor Noah, performing musical
accompaniment to poetry and rap performances by former refugees from the Congo and El
Salvador.[10]
In 2017, he performed Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto No. 2, “The American Four Seasons", with
the American Composers Orchestra at their 40th Anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall.[11]
In 2018, Fain performed Glass’ Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, conducted by Marin Alsop,
with cellist Matt Haimovitz at the Cabrillo Festival.[12]
In 2019, Fain performed works by Bach, Glass, and Mozart with cellist Denise Djokic and pianist
Andrew Armstrong at the Scotia Festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia.[13]

Work in Film[edit]
Tim Fain did his first work in film ghost-playing for Richard Gere in the Fox Searchlight movie Bee
Season in 2005.[14]
In 2010, Fain co-arranged the onscreen music in the movie Black Swan, and also performed
featured violin on-camera alongside leading actress Natalie Portman in the film.[15]
Fain has frequently collaborated with composer/pianist Nicholas Britell. Tim co-arranged and
performed the on screen diegetic music in 12 Years A Slave with Britell,[16] and is featured on the
soundtrack album Music from and Inspired by 12 Years a Slave. Fain and Britell also collaborated on
the soundtrack to Free State of Jones in 2016. Their work together includes Tale of Love and
Darkness, and Fain is featured in multiple episodes Season 2 of Succession.
Fain collaborated with Britell once again on the film score and soundtrack for 2016's Moonlight,
which won the Academy-Award for Best Picture that year. Fain also joined director and cast
members for special performances with Britell at a Moonlight screening and discussion[17] hosted
by The New York Times and performed the score live to picture for an event at the Million Dollar
Theater in Los Angeles.
Also in 2016, Fain featured on Jay Wadley's score to James Schamus' Indignation.
Fain also contributed featured violin performances to West Dylan Thordson's score for M. Night
Shyamalan's 2019 psychological superhero thriller, Glass.[18]

Work with Philip Glass[edit]

Fain has toured extensively with composer Phillip Glass as a duo partner, and has frequently
performed compositions by Glass including works he has written for Fain. He has collaborated with
other prominent musicians in performances of Glass’ work, including Iggy Pop, Simone
Dinnerstein, Sondre Lerche, Lou Reed, and Bryce Dessner of The National.[19]
Fain has performed music from Glass’ opera, Einstein on the Beach,[20] including in 2013, with pianist
Pei-Yao Wang a performance of Knee 2, in recital at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.
[21]
 Fain later joined the world tour cast of Einstein on the Beach as “Einstein” for a run of
performances in Gwangju, South Korea in 2015.
Fain continues to tour a duo-recital program worldwide with Philip Glass. The recital includes music
written by Glass for Fain.[22]
In 2012, Fain performed Philip Glass's Pendulum with pianist Bruce Brubaker at the composer's 75th
birthday party concert in New York.[23]
The pair toured together in 2017 on Book of Longing; a production featuring music written by Glass
and words by Leonard Cohen.[24]

Work in Music and Technology[edit]

Fain has a strong professional interest in the intersection of music and technology and has created
several virtual reality and multimedia works.
In 2011, Fain produced and premiered Portals; a multimedia musical evening which explores
connection in the digital age. Portals, in which Fain performs live on stage, features music by Philip
Glass, Aaron Jay Kernis, and Kevin Puts, text by Leonard Cohen, choreography by Benjamin
Millepied, and performances from Nicholas Britell and radio personality Fred Child. The work has
been performed at venues around the world— including Australia's Melbourne Festival, Le Lieu
Unique in Nantes, Los Angeles, New York City, and Omaha,[25] and was featured in, among
others, Vanity Fair, Vogue, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.[26]
In 2016, Fain collaborated with interdisciplinary musician Jacob Marshall of Mae and artist David
Lobser to create the first ever VR experience synced to a live performance at Jerusalem’s Tower of
David to close the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Summit.[27]
Fain has released VR violin performances on his YouTube channel, including the Jump VR
video Resonance[28] and a 180 VR performance of Philip Glass' "Knee Play 2" from Einstein on The
Beach filmed on the coastline of the San Juan Islands.[29]
In 2017, Fain again collaborated with Britell to premiere their multimedia film music recital program
“Once Upon a Score” at the Ravinia Festival.[30]
In 2018, Fain composed and performed the music for the VR series Interpretation of Dreams as part
of Samsung’s VR pilot season. Each episode of the series re-imagines a case study from Sigmund
Freud's 1899 book of the same name.[31]
Fain composed and performed the interactive musical score for Metamorphic, a social VR film
experience which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.[32]
In 2019, Fain gave a keynote speech at the TED conference in Hieronymus Park in Montana. The
presentation was titled "How Virtual Reality Can Help Make Our Stories (and Music!) Better," and
examined the future of music and virtual reality.[33]

Compositions[edit]
Fain composed the score and performed on the soundtrack to the 2014 documentary Untouchable:
Children of God which deals with the lives of two young girls who were rescued from working
in Indian brothels.[34]
In 2015, Fain composed Resonance, a short work for violin and orchestra which was used for
a Google Jump VR music film directed by Jessica Brillhart. The collaboration with Google, recorded
with Eric Jacobsen conducting The Knights,[28] marked YouTube's release of its 360 spatial audio
capabilities.
In 2016, he composed Freedom for violin and orchestra, the recording of which was released to
raise awareness about modern slavery. Proceeds from sales and downloads of Freedom went
toward Made in a Free World, an NGO focused on work in this area.[35]
Fain composed the score to Interpretation of Dreams, a 2018, 4-episode virtual reality series
directed by Graham Sack, and distributed by Samsung.[36]
Fain composed and performed the interactive musical score for Metamorphic, a social VR film
experience which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.[32]
Fain released his track Glacial in honor of Earth Day 2020, as a celebration of our planet and a call
to action to combat climate change.[37]

Awards and honors[edit]

 2006: Up-and-Coming Young Musicians, Symphony magazine[38]
 Young Concert Artists International Award[38]
 2007: Avery Fisher Career Grant[38]
 2007: "Pick of Up and Coming Musicians", The Strad[38]

Discography[edit]
 Philip Glass: Book of Longing (Orange Mountain Music, 2007)
 Arches: Music Then to Now (Image Recordings, 2008)
 Bee Season: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, (Nettwerk, 2009)
 Philip Glass: The Concerto Project, Vol. IV, (Orange Mountain Music, 2010)
 The Glass Chamber Players: Schoenberg* / Glass* – Verklärte Nacht Opus 4 / Sextet
For Strings, (Orange Mountain Music, 2010)
 Lifeforce: The Music of Joel Harrison, (Orange Mountain Music, 2010)
 Black Swan: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack  (Sony, 2011)[39]
 River of Light: American Short Works for Violin and Piano (Naxos, 2011)
 Music from and Inspired by 12 Years a Slave (Columbia Records, 2013)[40]
 "Variation", Tim Fain plays Michael Shapiro's Peace Variations (Paumanok, 2014)
 Tim Fain plays Philip Glass: Partita for solo violin (Orange Mountain Music, 2015)
 Resonance (single) (2015)
 First Loves (VIA Records, 2016)
 Moonlight (original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2016)
 Freedom (single) (2016)
 Michael Shapiro: Second Sonata for Violin and Piano, Tim Fain and Steven Beck
(Paumanok, 2017)
 Lou Harrison: Violin Concerto, Grand Duo & Double Music (Naxos, 2017)
 Club Diamond: Original Theater Soundtrack (Blind Bay Records, 2019)
 Glacial (single) (2020)