“Even in a city rich with players enthusiastic about new music, Eric Rynes stands out ... Listening to Mikka and Other Assorted Love Songs, Rynes’ new CD of contemporary solo violin pieces, you might be incredulous that only two of the nine works include computer-realized sounds, so varied and strange are the colors drawn from the instrument.”
Seattle Weekly
“[Mikka and Other Assorted Love Songs] is a marvelous CD and you are a marvelous musician. I enjoyed the pieces, and I enjoyed your art of performing, intelligent virtuosity, sensitivity and authentic temperament.”
Helmut Lachenmann
“Eric Rynes’s violin was so achingly beautiful that I came close to tears a few times”
SeattleJazzScene.com
“Does any other violinist in town devour so much terrifyingly difficult music for violin? Nope. This superb musician...”
The Stranger
“Seattle Modern Orchestra presented a spellbinding, committed performance [of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time] by violinist Eric Rynes and cellist Peter Williams (both principals with the Northwest Symphony Orchestra), pianist Akiko Iguchi, and clarinetist Stefan van Sant. ... What was especially remarkable here was the illusion of in-the-moment improvisation the musicians maintained. ... To be sure, Messiaen’s compositional design employs a complex mathematical rhythmic system, but the performance brought out the ecstatic, visionary state this music ultimately expresses. Similarly, I was struck by the romantic warmth and individuality of expression in the extended solos for van Sant and, in particular, the vibrato-heavy playing of Williams and Rynes. ”
Crosscut.com