Rachel Barton Pine plays Brahm’s Lullaby in her home. The song has passed from mother to daughter for generations. Sweet sweet dreams Rachel Barton Pine on parenting, lullabies and looking on the bright side

BY TAMARA L. O’SHAUGHNESSY | PHOTOS BY FRANK PINC

irtuoso violinist Rachel Barton “I actually feel like wherever we are, I won’t feed her anything that you don’t Pine is known worldwide for that’s our home that week because I am approve of if you don’t dress her in any the powerful music she coaxes bringing my family with me. Home is my clothes that I don’t approve of.’ Therefore from strings, but these days, family. We share the same adventures,” there were no matching mom-and-baby she plays especially for an Pine says. metal T-shirts,” Pine says. audience of one. And she had so looked forward to the Sylvia. First-time parents and AC/DC onesies. V“When I’m thinking about performing “If that’s the biggest disagreement as and playing music, it’s not that I want “Having a baby is a whole different parents, we’re pretty lucky,” she says. Sylvia to be proud of my career success—I kind of an adventure,” Pine says. As Sylvia grows, can she and Greg keep do hope that she’ll be proud of me and She hopes her own mom thinks she’s up their intense schedule? “We’ll just have what I’ve done with my life—but I want a happy, loving, devoted parent. Her to play it by ear,” Pine says. her to enjoy the music that I am play- youngest sister, Hannah, tells Rachel and A lot will depend on what Sylvia ing. I want her to be able to share that Greg they are too calm to be first-time wants. She could be into academics or with me because the is who I am. parents. Pine laughs. athletics—Greg was a minor league I want to give all of myself to Sylvia and “My lifestyle is full of stress. It’s happy pitcher and holds a double major in math that includes the violin,” Pine says as she stress, but there’s always surprises, always and economics—music, or something snuggles her 17-month-old daughter on a intensity. We’ve just really learned to take she’d never expect. brief stopover at their Chicago condo. life as it comes,” says Pine, 38. “...Whatever Whatever it is, she says they will sup- Sylvia is a dream-come-true for Pine happens, we’re just going to go with it, do port her. and her husband, Greg. our best, not let it get us upset.” Just like her family did for her. These days the family—Pine, Greg and She and Greg have teamwork down. They Music was not a world her parents knew. Sylvia, along with a nanny—travel the are on the same page about raising Sylvia— Her mom anticipated Rachel would take an globe on an adventure few can imagine. with one notable exception early on. academic path, into math and science. But Pine’s intense schedule rarely prevents Pine is a vegan since birth. Greg is the violin enthralled her. By 5, the violin her from seeing her baby, who she is meat-and-potatoes. became her identity, with her red hair being nursing, so Sylvia has 13 stamps in her She wanted to raise Sylvia as a vegan. her second defining feature, she says. passport already. “Greg and I made a deal. He said, ‘OK, “Luckily they recognized that I was

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CHIPAR0413_056.indd 1 3/15/13 3:17 PM who I said I was so they supported me. It parent must explain to their child, she generosity, something she so admires in wasn’t easy.” adds, among them death, divorce and her husband. Whether or not Sylvia picks up an instru- the facts of life. She wants to teach Sylvia to “treat ment—she already has a tiny violin—isn’t “For me the more challenging aspect to my life’s twists and turns with calmness and the point. Pine believes every child should life history was the financial circumstances of perspective. Always looking on the bright be given an opportunity to play music. my childhood, that my father wasn’t able to side of whatever “Who knows, she’s a Chicago baby, she support us and all of the difficulties because happens.” might be a musician,” Pine quips. of that,” she says. Along the way, “Sometimes we didn’t know how we were Pine says she and Watch Rachel going to pay for groceries and fill the tank Greg will be raising Tough answers, life lessons to drive to lessons that week. The phone her with their Barton Pine play No stranger to headlines heralding and electricity were always getting cut off. values and faith, Brahm’s Lullaby at her music and talent, Pine captured the We were always one payment away from with tolerance and nation’s sympathy in 1995 when her losing the roof over our heads,” she says. respect for differ- ChicagoParent.com/ violin case became trapped in the doors At 14, Pine was working to support her ences and diversity. lullaby of a Metra train and she was dragged and mother and sisters. “I want her to pulled under the train. “In order for my daughter to know me, have a relation- “I think to the outside world my injuries some day I am going to have to tell her ship with music, seem like a very dramatic episode in my about that in such a way that she will still whatever that ends up meaning for her. life, but everybody has had challenges,” love and respect grandma and grandpa I want her to have a relationship with she says when asked how she’ll explain her and understand what they went through.” God, whatever that ends up meaning for injuries to Sylvia one day. She’s already strategizing ways to help her. I want to do my best to help guide “There’s the element of my trauma that Sylvia grow up with a “healthy under- her towards both of those things in a way I’ll have to explain to her in such a way standing of human sexuality and family that I’m teaching her what I know and that hopefully it won’t give her night- diversity.” It’s important she grows up believe, but also helping her try and find mares and then there’s the element of my also understanding and supporting mar- injuries,” Pine says. riage equality, she says. But there are many difficult things a She also wants her daughter to learn CONTINUED ON PAGE 58

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herself,” Pine says. Lullabies and She’ll definitely grow up knowing a diversity of people Of course, music always is from this life’s adventures. present in their lives. “She’s going to hang out with Just moments after Sylvia my heavy metal friends who was born, Pine sang her a work construction and she’s lullaby, “Summertime,” which going to hang out with members is featured on her new CD of of the aristocracy in Europe and never-before collected lullabies, she’s going to hang out with Violin Lullabies. everybody in between.” An avid collector of sheet Watching Pine play on the music, Pine noticed long ago floor with Sylvia after just that many composers had performing a stunning version written lullabies. She filed that of Brahm’s Lullaby, there’s no knowledge away until she had doubt she’s a really good mom. a baby. She smiles at that thought. Tracking down the music “I’m also realistic enough became a treasure hunt since to realize that no matter how many of the lullabies were long hard I try that there are going out of print. After Sylvia was to be things that I get wrong or born, she would nurse while that my daughter decides that Pine searched the web. Pine I’ve gotten wrong,” Pine says. gathered and played them all, “I’m already steeling myself for ending up with more than 150. living with that. Hopefully she’ll Twenty-five made the cut for forgive me my flaws and I’ll the CD, with a 2-week-old Sylvia forgive her her flaws and we’ll cradled in her daddy’s arms on Sylvia is a dream come true for Greg and Rachel, preceding page. be friends till the end.” the cover. Mom and daughter play with blocks, above.

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