Tim Fain

Avery Fisher Career Grant-winning violinist and composer TIM FAIN has earned a reputation as a mesmerizing creator and performer appearing on today’s greatest stages, and is now coming into his own as a composer with an authentic voice, pushing the envelope with cutting-edge technology. He has been recognized for his original compositions for a vast array of projects in film/TV, VR, concert music, theater, and extended media, and performances on soundtracks for award-winning feature films.

Seen on-screen and heard in the Grammy-nominated soundtrack to Black Swan, and known for his performances in the soundtracks to Oscar-winning films 12 Years a Slave and Moonlight, Fain’s violin playing is also prominently featured in Glass, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Don’t Look Up, Indignation, and HBO’s Succession (where he also makes a cameo appearance).

In the concert music world, Fain’s violin concerto Edge of a Dream premiered with the Amarillo Symphony/Jacomo Bairos, Buffalo Philharmonic with Otto Tausk among several others.. His work Resonance, commissioned by Google/YouTube for a groundbreaking VR video, was recorded by The Knights/Eric Jacobsen, subsequently shown at The Sundance Film Festival. Other notable violin/orchestral compositions include Glacial, inspired by Antarctica’s melting Thwaites Glacier and used in a Sierra Club Earth Day campaign; Saturn for Ralph Lauren Spring collection advertising; Freedom, created for Made in a Free World. Unraveling, for 17 looped violins, will be released on an album for Delos records.

Fain continues to be at the forefront of technology, working on boundary-pushing projects and VR experiences, including Metamorphic at Sundance Film Festival; The Interpretation of Dreams for Samsung at TriBeCa Film Festival, Together as One for Facebook/Oculus, Flock for The Future of Storytelling in NYC, and Light, co-composed with the band MAE and commissioned by Forbes and the city of Jerusalem as one of the first VR experiences synced with live music, also featured at SXSW. Fain’s LED light installation with Symmetry Labs was featured on BBC and PBS, and he gave a TEDx talk on emerging technologies in music. As Director of Music at Studio Elsewhere, Fain also helps create bio-experiential environments for healthcare. His highly successful evening-length multimedia show Portals features a Philip Glass work written for Fain, and included collaborations with Leonard Cohen, Nicholas Britell, Benjamin Millepied, Kate Hackett, Nico Muhly, and Fred Child.

Whether touring the world in a duo with Philip Glass, performing solo with the National Orchestra of Spain or American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, or collaborating with artists ranging from Mitsuko Uchida to composer Meredith Monk, jazz pianist Billy Childs, Bryce Dessner, DJ Spooky, Iggy Pop, Rob Thomas (Matchbox Twenty), James Blake, or Christina Aguilera, Fain electrifies audiences. His wildly diverse career has taken him to unique spaces all across the globe, including on-stage at the NYC Ballet, The Vatican, and a performance for the Dalai Lama’s 80th Birthday.